Detonate
by Euregatto
Summary: Lee Everett is stranded with a group of survivors in a Motor Inn and soon realizes that not everyone is as they seem... and that sometimes there are worse things to fear than the dead lingering outside the barrier walls.
1. Grounds for Divorce

**Before you begin**: will have implied LeexCarley and LeexLilly, although the romance will probably stick to Lee and Carley. I've had this story in my head for a while... anyway, it's not a typical rewrite of the episodes, so I'm going to add a twist that will be revealed next chapter. For now enjoy, and _**please REVIEW if you liked it! **I almost always respond to questions. I'm also still checking for mistakes so there will be some minor changes every now and then._

"Talking"  
_Thinking/Flashback_

**Chapter title  
**_themed lyrics underneath_

* * *

**Chapter 1: Grounds for Divorce**

_But it does you no good_  
_And it does me no good_  
_And it does you no good_  
_There's a hole in my neighbourhood down which of late I cannot help but fall_

* * *

The flames crackled in the rust-bitten fire pit, igniting the kindle with a blended vortex of monochrome colors that reminded Lee of a sunset. In the background he recognized the familiar echo of boney claws scratching the barrier walls outside the lot; the faint stench of decay and mold underlined the thick musk of smoke. Although it was still the middle of the summer the evening had been gradually getting frigid since the last drops of sunlight scattered over the horizon.

"That damn walker's going to attract more of 'em if we don't get rid of it." Lee glanced over his shoulder as Kenny passed into the group circle, squeezing between Lee's and Carley's chairs. He perched on Lee's other side.

They had set up a ring of lawn chairs around the bonfire after the group decided that sleep wasn't an option. It started with the newcomer Mark and his inauguration into the group with Carley, and then Lee decided he wanted a drink after checking to make sure Clementine was fast asleep, a few minutes later Larry brought out the drinks, and it ended with Kenny who had seen the flickering fire through his window.

"We'll get it later," Lee remarked assuredly, "but for now just ignore it."

Carley glanced at Kenny expectantly. "How's Duck doing?"

"Better now that he had his medicine." Kenny passed his stare over to Larry on his left. "Got a drink?"

"Plenty," Larry replied, rifling through the content of the cooler at his feet. He popped the cap of a cheap, bitter beer with his bare hands – a talent that always reminded Lee of his unruly strength – and handed it over.

Silence once again settled across the group like a thin sheet. It had only been three weeks and already things were awkward for them. Lee noticed that the tension tended to veer towards himself, especially when he had to choose between Lilly's valid side of the argument or his loyalty to Kenny. _Speaking of Lilly… _"Carley," he addressed and she met his calculated gaze out of the corner of her eye, "have you checked on Lilly?"

"I did about an hour ago to change her bandages."

"Something about me now?" As if on cue Lilly appeared from the darkness behind Larry. She was slouched to shift a majority of her weight to one leg.

Larry chuckled. "Ha, knew you'd be up and about in less than a day! Take a seat."

She limped over to the vacant chair next to Carley and plopped down with a hiss of pain. Her fingers massaged her injury beneath the bandages encasing her upper thigh. "Shit that hurts. Nothing alcohol can't solve though, right?"

"Finish mine," Lee offered, reaching across Carley with a polite 'excuse me' to hand off the bottle of whiskey. "I ain't gonna drink it."

Lilly accepted it carefully. "Huh, thanks. Good year, too."

And, as anticipated, the group fell back into quite. Lee leant back in his seat and allowed his head to press against the rest. Lilly received her injury from deciding it would be a genius idea to get some supplies for their group and left the motel by herself on a quest to prove nothing yet everything. However… she was brave.

Lee knew that there wasn't anyone else in their group who had enough courage to do what she did, regardless of how foolish it had been.

* * *

_The morning prior…_

Hazy emerald eyes scanned the tree-line for any signs of movement.

The summer heat scattered when a torrent of wind raced by, scattering leaves across the vivid landscape and whipping her auburn hair into her face. She swept her bangs behind her ears and examined the decapitated corpse sprawled out on the grass. It was a fresh kill from what she could tell; the severed neck was still oozing black unidentifiable liquids, the fingers twitched slightly and the blood splattered across the tree was dripping down the bark like wet paint.

Her heart slammed into the cage of her chest, filling the silence with her rhythmic pulses and quickened breaths.

"Lee!" She exclaimed, disregarding her initial plan to lay low and stay quiet. "Dad! Kenny! Carley! ANYONE!? Answer me!" Her voice carried out into the rolling hills. When she didn't receive a reply she raised her rifle to the crook of her shoulder. "GUYS! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

**_"RUN!"_**

She whirled around when the voice sounded out from somewhere nearby. Instead of catching a glimpse of anyone from her group, however, she noticed something shambling through the underbrush, its jerking gait familiar and menacing. "Guys?" The darkest corners of her mind instinctively alerted her to the presence of the danger. In turn her grip on the rifle tensed.

Twigs snapped behind her.

She spun to face the noise as a shadow sauntered towards her – no, three shadows… five, seven, **_eight_** – on a slight limp, its broken shin shifting under the pressure with sickening snaps. The scent of decay and black mold drifted upwind; she bit back bile, aware that she still wasn't accustomed to the smell by now. _There's a lot of them, _she noted, squinting into the scope. _Aim, fire, and run. Aim, fire… and run._

She lined the marker up with the closest Walker's forehead.

She exhaled.

And then she pulled the trigger.

_CLICK._

"SON OF A B-!" Ragged claws suddenly reached around her head from behind and latched onto her face. She reflexively swung her elbow back, nailing the Walker in the gut. Decomposing ribs shattered against the contact but the creature only held tighter. Its finger bones were poking through the skin, filed down to sharp edges from the constant scratching against walls and other barriers. Her cheek was practically shredded in its grip.

She screamed for her group – for her father, Lee, even Kenny – and thrashed vehemently. _No! Nonono! NO! This is **not** how I'm going to die! I will NOT become one of you! _Several other claws grasped her ankles and waist, pinning her to the ground almost like they were trying to drag her down into the abyss they came from. **_NOOOO!_**

The zombies sank their teeth into the tender flesh of her neck, hip and thighs, slicing cleanly through layers of flesh and muscle –

Lilly sat up with a start, the echo of her scream reverberating off her walls. Her first instinct was to snatch the hand gun from the corner of the nightstand and aim it around the room, threatening even the smallest of shadows. When she was greeted by nothing but dim darkness and her own gasps for breath she checked her neck. The fire died instantly, revealing nothing more than her normal, unbitten self.

She slid out from under her sweat-soaked sheets and trekked over to the mirror beside the dresser. The course of the month had taken a toll on her body; beneath the shorts and sleeveless shirt she appeared thinner from loss of appetite, her shoulder bore a scar from where a shard of metal had impacted her during the construction of the barrier wall outlining the front of the motor inn, and her hair felt like straw to the touch.

"Just a dream," she uttered under her breath.

The door was slammed open and Carley and Lee appeared in her line of sight, Carley armed with her gun and Lee with his fire ax. "LILLY!" Lee exclaimed when they realized the lack of danger in the room, "are you alright? We heard you scream!"

"I'm fine," she answered, composing herself. "It was just a nightmare."

Lee didn't seem convinced for a moment but he lowered his ax anyway. "Are… you sure you're alright? It sounded like you were-"

"I'm fine!" Lilly barked, shoving him in the chest. He stumbled back through the doorway. She gripped Carley's shoulders and insistently pushed her out in his wake. "Get the hell out of my room! Doesn't the term _privacy_ mean anything to you guys anymore?"

Carley frowned. "Uh… but we just…"

Lilly slammed the door shut before they could see her crying.

* * *

The street was quiet for the first time this week. There were no Walkers, no people shouting for rescue, no echoing gunshots resonating from somewhere in the distance. Lilly appreciated the silence as she traversed the lot, crisp summer leaves crunching beneath her boots. The air was starting to get a little colder during the morning hours, but she had to endure the shift of the seasons if they planned on surviving through the coming winter.

A bitter gust of wind swept across the motor inn. She shivered and zipped up her jacket, continuing her trek towards the RV.

Across the way she caught movement resonating from the inside of Lee's room. She turned her attention away from the window when he passed by and onto Clementine and Carley drawing symbols and pictures into the pavement with chalk. Lilly steered away from them, though, with her intentions focused on the RV. The group had had another argument while building the wall the day before and she wasn't quite in the mood to put up with anyone's leftover attitudes. Nor did she want to mention the awkward mishap earlier this morning.

"Lilly?"

She froze at the foot of the ladder and glanced over her shoulder. "Yes?"

Clementine was staring up at her intently, her hazel eyes filled with a distant, perplexed kind of curiosity. "Lee says you were in the Air Force… that's with all the helicopters and planes and stuff, right?"

Lilly gyrated so she could fully face the little girl. "Yeah."

"So you know what a plane looks like, right?"

_That's an odd question. _Lilly crossed her arms against her chest. "What are you trying to get at?"

Clementine gestured to the cartoonish city she and Carley had been creating for the past half hour. "I'm not very good at drawing planes. Can you do one for me?"

The request caught Lilly off guard for a moment. She didn't want to reject the child, but at the same time she had to keep watch until Larry and Kenny finally decided to emerge from their rooms. She caught Carley's calculated stare out of the corner of her eye. "Carley, could you keep lookout?"

"Of course." Carley rose steadily to her feet and brushed purple dust from her jeans. "Are you OK? This morning was a bit of a scare."

Lilly shrugged impassively. When Carley realized she wasn't going to get a proper response – or a response at all – she pressed her thin lips into an even thinner line and advanced towards the RV. Lilly took her place at Clementine's side. "That's a nice city you've got going on here." The monochrome 2D structures were lined along a street where a skillfully sketched car was passing down the road (Lilly knew it had to be Carley's work, she had the precision of a Terminator with an automatic lock-on). "Where do you want me to stick the plane?"

"Anywhere," Clem answered, coloring in the leaves of a tree with the green chalk.

Lilly shifted through the worn down pieces scattered across the mural until she found the remaining half of the red stick. She sought through the fragments of her memories until she was able to recall the last time she had played with chalk – it was when she was nine and she was with her neighbor, another girl her age named Heather who eventually became one of the snobby chicks in school. Heather was Lilly's first zombie kill when the world began to fall apart at the seams.

She was also the zombie Lilly had tried to shoot in her dream.

"Lilly…" Clementine nudged her elbow. "Are you OK? You look sad."

Lilly was rejected from her thoughts and she reassuringly pat the other girl's back. "I'm fine," she fibbed, feigning a smile. "I was thinking of where to put the plane. Is up here alright?" She tapped the spot between two clouds that looked more like sheep.

"That's good."

Lilly worked quickly to outline the jet plane and colored it in, etching distinct features into it with white chalk. Clementine leaned over throughout the process to observe her work. "Do you like it?" The older woman asked, wiping the smeared color off of her fingers on the asphalt beside her.

"Duck draws his planes differently," the girl replied quietly, "but I like yours better."

Lilly glanced up at Carley who was gazing out through the rifle scope, and then around at the motor inn. Lee was outside now, towing some old planks away from his door and over towards the barrier. "Where is Duck, anyway?"

"Kenny said he couldn't play with me today." Clementine started on drawing the stick-figured version of the group beside the cityscape. "Duck's sick. Kat told me that he would feel better soon, though, and that I shouldn't worry."

Lilly furrowed her brow. "I'll be right back."

Kenny, Katjaa, and Duck shared the same motel room, a family-oriented one beside Lee and Clementine's. They had the larger rooms with two beds, appropriately separating them, although certain morale standards didn't really matter regardless. _Seems like I'm beginning to think like my father, _Lilly told herself as she approached the door labeled 8. _At this rate I'll start having my own heart palpitations._

Her knuckles rapped the tattered surface before her. "Kenny? Kat? You two in there?"

A moment later Kenny answered. The door creaked open on rust-bitten hinges, partially revealing Kat perched on a chair beside her son's bed and Kenny with his face pulled taught into a blank, unreadable expression. "What?" He hissed.

"Heard Duck was sick," Lilly remarked, her tone emotionless and almost rigid. "Does he need some medicine? I can try to see what we have in storage."

She and Lee had grabbed plenty of medicine prior to escaping from the pharmacy. They had a supply of pills for her father, Duck's ADHD and even the occasional migraine (although those particular pills seemed to be the only thing in her stomach anymore). The only thing they had to worry about now was the eventual shortage of their food. Hopefully the dead hadn't eaten all the deer in the area… just in case.

Kenny sighed, snapping her out of her thoughts. "He's just a little under the weather. Don't worry, it'll pass."

Before she could open her mouth to speak her opinion the door was swung shut in her face. _Jackass. _She couldn't blame him, however – the fighting amongst the group had been escalating lately, mostly over the position of power amongst herself, Kenny, and Lee, although Lee really didn't want anything to do with it. Lilly recalled the argument yesterday afternoon that promptly ended with tensions so thick she could slice it with a knife. It had almost concluded with a fist fight between Kenny and Larry, but Carley managed to break them apart before anything serious could befall either of them – heart attack or otherwise.

She contemplated banging on the door and screaming at him, but she wasn't in the mood to put up with his emotional swings.

"Mornin' Lil."

She backed away from the door and faced her father, replacing her frown with a slight smile. "Hey Dad. You gonna work on the wall today? I'm sure Lee would love to help out, he's already going at it."

By love she meant dread, because Lee didn't enjoy the thought of going within a ten foot proximity of her father until she was able to _"remove that pole the size of Texas from his ass"._

Larry scoffed. "Someone's gotta get off their lazy ass and do it. But stay away from him! He's bad news!"

Lilly rolled her eyes skyward. "Whatever you say, Old Man."

Larry grunted. "You look just like your mother – and you behave like her too." He jabbed his stout finger into her shoulder. Lilly knew she had her mother's green eyes and father's mean streak, but he refused to consider himself the reason for this less than charming quality. "Stubborn as an ox that woman was…"

"Listen, Dad, about this morning…"

His eyebrow peaked. "Something happened this morning?"

_I forgot you sleep like a rock. Not even a meteor strike could wake you up. _Lilly tromped away from him. "Never mind. I'm going to check in with everyone. Make sure the perimeter is secure, OK?" She ignored his next snide remark involving her mother's genes and, as usual, Lee, and headed over to the man nailing a board into the wall with the head of his ax. Despite frequent disagreements he was the only one in the group who talked to her with the respect she may or may not have deserved. _At least **someone** still appreciates me around here. _

"Hey Lee."

Lee propped a board up against the wall. "Hey Lilly. Give me a hand with this for a moment?" She pressed her palms against the wood to hold it steady and he hammered in a nail with the head of his axe before speaking again. "So, what's up?"

"About this morning…"

"Yeah that was certainly terrifying." He pounded another nail into the board. Offhandedly he added, "You can relax, I've got it now." He lifted another nail to kiss the tattered face of the board. "Are you alright?"

"I'm dandy, actually. I wanted to make sure I didn't startle Clementine."

"Nah, I told her you had a nightmare and didn't go into detail. It didn't bother her. All that matters is that you're not hurt." He lifted the axe to meet the sliver of metal jabbing into the wood.

She allowed the statement to sink in like a rock hitting the surface of the water. That was the first time in weeks she had heard such concern coming from _anyone_ about her condition… excluding her father who only showed his love through aggressively berating or threatening. Lilly decided not to dwell on the comment and briskly changed the subject with a wag of her head. "Do you know what happened to Duck?"

Lee lowered his tools and faced her, his brow furrowed in contemplation. "Yeah, Kenny mentioned he was stung by a bee. Apparently he's allergic, but they didn't have any medicine to treat the hives so Kat wants him to sleep it off."

Lilly peered over at the family's sealed room. "Do you know if he's deathly allergic?"

"I think if it isn't treated it may be the death of him, if that's what you mean. Ken said not to worry about it but… I'm not convinced. Yet, I don't know what to do." The corners of his lips twitched gradually into a frown. "And I can tell by the look on your face that we don't have anything to treat the reaction."

"Precisely." She paused. Lee could practically see the light bulb blinking overhead as a smirk stitched its way across her previously stern expression. "Macon."

"Excuse me?"

"Macon. The air base where I worked isn't far from there. I'll head out and pick up some medicine. I can even gather some food! It'll be like killing two birds with one stone. Three birds if I can find some ammunition, too."

"That's insane!" Lee objected, his voice traveling throughout the lot. Carley glanced at them briefly before losing interest and returned to her watch. Clementine hadn't noticed, although Larry now studied them from his position at the other end of the wall. Lee swallowed dryly. He knew better by now: if he kept talking to Lilly her father would scold him afterwards, emphasizing his rage with typical threats of violence. However, he didn't care about Larry's opinions unless they benefitted the group… which they never did.

Larry's metallic gaze bore into the back of Lee's head. Lilly caught on almost instantly and defended him with an equally intimidating glare of her own.

Lee droned on when he was sure the situation would only become even more awkward than usual. "Macon's infested with the dead! You'll never make it back in one piece! Hell, you might not come back at all! I'm not letting you go by yourself."

Lilly snorted in failed attempt to hold back a harsh, sarcastic laugh. "Who do you take me for, my father? I'm not slow and I'm certainly not incompetent. It'll be faster if I go alone. Besides, I need someone I can trust to lead the group while I'm gone."

Lee crossed his arms back against his chest and his eyebrow arched. "Right. Since when have _I _ever been a worthy leader?"

"Hey, don't know 'til you try!"

Lilly was suddenly grappled at the elbow. "You're coming with me," Larry seethed, towing her off so they were out of ear-shot.

Lee cocked his head quizzically as they bickered – he was ninety-nine point nine percent sure Larry was advising (or, rather, _demanding_) that she stop talking to him. After several minutes she finally shouted "I SAID I DON'T CARE! I CAN DO WHATEVER THE HELL I WANT!" and stormed off towards her room. Larry advanced in the opposite direction, nostrils flaring and eyes ablaze with rage.

Lee exchanged a sideways glance with Carley. _This can't end well…_


	2. Freefalling

**Chapter 2: Freefalling**

* * *

Carley knew it was going to be one of _those _days again: a full blown, exhausting shift from sunrise to sunset defined by typical outbursts amongst the peers of the group, the sickening awareness of the dead roaming the forests around them, and the tension weaving into the atmosphere across the motor inn that would all wind down to her coping with the stress by folding away into her own imagination. It didn't help that the argument the day before had left its imprint, and the incident with Lilly only a few hours ago graced Carley with nothing but a severe migraine.

Content that they were safe for now, Carley slid down the RV ladder and shoved her hands into her jean pockets.

Blood was pulsing to the parts of her brain she didn't even know were there. It was probably the headache that was impairing her outlook on the day's events thus far, although she couldn't quite ignore the fact that she had been up all night and the only half hour of shut eye she finally managed to receive was abruptly stolen back by Lilly's screams – cries that could have put a banshee to shame, mind you. Things were going to escalate. Quickly. It was practically law around here now.

She heard a Walker groaning from the barrier outside the lot, sauntering through the underbrush away from their base. The impulsive fear passed her by as it always did.

Carley traversed the lot to her room which rested two doors down from Lilly's; on the other side of Lee's. The close proximity had been why they were able to arrive on scene so fast earlier. It was a weird feeling, really – she and Lee had clicked together perfectly, like the intent to protect Lilly and retaliate against whatever was threatening her had been a synchronized display of fellowship.

She forced herself to suppress the pang of resentment welling in her chest.

She hadn't worked that well with _anyone_ since her escape from the news headquarters with Doug. Even the rescue mission to save Glenn from the Motor Inn wasn't as coordinated. Well… that retrieval operation wasn't planned well _at all_. In fact, she and Lee had jumped at the chance head first with no real regards for a plan aside from: get in, get out, and be as quiet as possible. They hadn't done a very good job to say the least.

**_THWAK!_**

Something struck Carley square in the face with such force she was sent sprawling back. She caught her balance and instantaneously felt warmth cascade down the front of her shirt.

And there it was: things had escalated… _quickly_.

She touched her nose and felt the cartilage shift out of place. "MOTHER FU-!"

"Carley!" Lilly exclaimed, drowning out the lengthy line of obscenities the other woman almost unleashed for the whole world to hear, "Oh shit!"

Carley pinched her throbbing nose at the bridge but the geyser of blood didn't let up. She hissed about the sudden jolt of pain that spanned along her nerves like fire. "You broke my freaking nose, dammit! Who in the right mind slams the door open like that!?"

"I'm sorry, I was just-!" Lilly's voice faltered. She wasn't quite sure how to word _"I had a rage quit" _correctly without sounding like a complete asshole of a superhuman (considering if superhumans actually _did_ exist). "Sorry, sorry, sorry!"

"Carley!" Lee approached from their left, concern etched into his normally stoic features. "What the hell happened!?"

"I was assaulted with a door," she replied grimly. Her tone was nasally from her grip on her now shattered nose. "Ow, that hurts, _ow_…"

Lilly's room door was dented in the center point, like she had impacted it with a sledgehammer and the metal decided that its sole purpose was overrated so it caved in on itself. Lee slid his arm under Carley's. "Easy now, we'll patch it up."

Lilly invited them into her room and she shuffled through her dresser drawers for the spare medical supplies she kept lying around. Carley perched on the stool in the corner and titled her head back so the current of the gushing blood was redirected. Lee tried to pry her hands away to get a better assessment on the severity of the wound; he was promptly rejected. "Stop touching it dammit!" She swallowed the metallic fluid sliding down the cavity of her throat. "I'm fine!"

"You are _not _fine, there's blood _everywhere!_"

Clementine was peering around the corner of the doorframe, her fingers nervously gripping the hem of her dress. She was ushered forward when Kenny appeared behind her and his familiar grasp found her shoulder. "What happened!? I heard screaming!" He kneeled down to her height. "Clem, are you alright?"

"She's fine!" Lilly avowed, pacing over to Carley. "This doesn't concern her!" She littered her bed with a select few medical choices and shoved Lee aside with enough assertion to almost knock him over as well. He didn't retaliate, although he did question the sudden strength he didn't know she possessed.

Kenny gawked. "What the hell is wrong with her face?!"

"Broken nose," Lee replied calmly, almost like setting an example would ease Kenny's adrenaline.

"_SO WHAT HAPPENED_!?"

Lilly whipped her head around. "Stop yelling before I break your nose too!"

"You **broke **her _nose_?"

"I didn't do it on purpose!"

"I doubt that!"

"WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY, ASSHOLE?!"

"Will you two just shut up for five minutes!? It's like I'm babysitting a bunch of nine year olds!"

Carley merely sighed and allowed Lilly to rant while she tended to the wound, her shouts mingling with Kenny's accusations and Lee's vain attempts at breaking them apart. She folded into her own mind and imagined that they were part of the crowd at a hockey stadium Doug mentioned he used to work at, their crying and hollering to cheer their team on filling her with positive emotions instead of negative ones.

And, just as she anticipated, it turned into one of _those _days again.

* * *

_"I can't be the only one, right?"_

_Carley glanced at her friend across the kitchen table, her lips pursed in thought. She stirred her mocha cappuccino with a spoon, mixing in the several packets of sugar she was going to need to assist fuel her through the day. Monday mornings were never her forte, regardless of how much sleep she had gotten the night prior._

_Doug simply smirked at his only pal. "Do you know how many times you've asked that question? You act like you're a real-life incarnation of a superhero out of a comic book. No one's going to judge you for being different. You're like that kid who can see in the dark; you have a few deformed body parts. That's all."_

_"You make it sound like a bad thing."_

_"Just sayin' it like it is."_

_Carley knew she had a gift that separated her from the rest of society. It helped her become a reporter, it assisted her out in the field, it alerted her to potential dangers. The first time her doctor diagnosed her with the most accurate and acute hearing this side of the planet she considered herself special. But over the years it soon became evident that her unnatural "ability" was more of a curse. _

_She could hear everything. And there were some things in this world she didn't want to hear – like the hollowed, starving moans of the wandering undead just outside the motor inn. Sometimes she would hear Larry and Lilly arguing from inside their rooms. Occasionally a zombie would claw at the barrier of the walls in the midnight hours and keep her wide awake until it eventually stumbled off._

_"You're a figment of my imagination," she hissed, tossing the mug into the air. It suspended itself there like it was drifting through water. Liquids leaked from the rim and furled into the air, glinting in the daylight rays. "Why am I taking advice from you?"_

_Doug sniggered behind his hand. He removed his hands from their clutch around his own mug and shoved them into his jacket pockets. "Because without my smarts you'd be helpless. Lee hasn't forgiven you for the batteries yet, has he?"_

_She flushed. "Let me guess, you're not gonna let me live that down either, are you?"_

_"Ha-ha, nope."_

_"Screw you, Doug. I'm just a little ditzy!"_

_"A little?"_

"Carley…"

Carley was dragged out of her daydream, realizing that she had actually been on the verge of actually falling asleep. She allowed her perception of reality to readjust before responding to the child. "Hm?"

"Are you feeling better now?"

She wanted to rebound a sarcastic comment about how she was as pristine as a freaking cloudless sky, but she didn't want to take her anger out on innocent little Clementine. The swelling courtesy of her bandaged nose left hideous indigo markings around her eyes. She may as well have taken Larry on in a boxing match. And her stomach was churning from having eaten nothing but pain killers.

Yeah, she was just _dandy._

She exhaled an exasperated sigh. "I'm fine." Her head lolled back onto her lawn chair head rest. "Just perfect…" She tried to remember Doug's distinct features from her half-dream, but after a moment she fell short of the mark.

Clementine loomed beside her with a blank, unreadable expression crossing her features. "It looks like it hurts."

"Nah, it's all good. Doesn't hurt a single bit." Lies. Obvious, pathetic, unoriginal _lies._

Carley picked up on Lee's muted hum of thought from on top of the RV where he was completing the morning shift. Correction, _her _morning shift. The swelling obscured her vision and nearly sealed her eyelids together like glue, so Lilly requested (or rather, _ordered_) that she sit out until further notice.

Her headache had eased into nothing more than a slight throb, the lingering effects of Kenny and Lilly's fallout prior to Lee physically throwing Lilly onto his shoulder, locking her in the broom closet and refusing to let her out until she complied with cooling her clearly inherited temper. When they let her out about twenty minutes later there were gaping holes in the walls. But it was better that the walls took the hits than Kenny's face.

_I wonder where she is now._

Carley titled her head slightly when she heard Lee mutter something to himself about the temperamental members of the group, almost like he had been reading her thoughts. She caught Clementine's stare through slotted eyes. The girl wasn't focused on her anymore but rather the shadowy figure approaching them.

"Here," Kenny said, settling the ice pack against her injury.

The chill hurt worse than the initial impact that gave her the wound in the first place. She endured the ache with a feasible shudder and cradled the pack to her swelling. "Thanks Kenny."

"Don't mention it."

Their moment of peace was interrupted when Larry stormed up to the RV with his hands shoved into his pockets. "Lee!" For one he didn't sound aggressive or abrasive but rather candidly curious. "I was gonna use your ax to help patch up a break in the wall. Where is it?"

Lee glanced over the edge of the RV. "It isn't in the truck? That's where I left it."

"I already checked the entire lot! What do you take me for, some kind of idiot?"

Lee repressed the urge to shoot a snappy comeback but simply grunted. He knew better than to start a fight when it wasn't necessary; it was the last thing his group needed right now. "I'll check my room then. Maybe I forgot I moved it… or something."

He slid down the ladder and trekked across the lot to his room, pushing the door open gently. The ax wasn't visible in any corner, nor was it under the beds when he leaned down to check. Usually he would keep the weapon propped up against the corner of the wall across from his bed, a great place to reach it in the event of an emergency. Although, lately, the emergencies have receded into nothing more than the arguments amongst the survivors over the most trivial circumstances.

His chocolate stare darted towards the nightstand when a slip of paper caught his eye. He briskly observed the walls like he was expecting to see someone watching him. When nothing happened he gripped the wrinkled sheet and unfolded it. Across the pages were several words etched in half-cursive and half-print with a blotchy blue pen, a hand writing Lee recognized almost instantly as Lilly's.

_Borrowing your ax. Don't come looking for me._

"Ah, shit."

* * *

The zombie had once been a business man; his expensive suit was shredded into rags now, though, and his flesh was holed with rot and maggots. His once gray-green eyes were glazed over with a milky haze, ridden of emotions and understanding. His torso was hollowed, void of organs with the only a spinal column still visible. All he – it – was now was a shell of a man: a vessel of death and a cesspool of disease.

It straggled along the road with its emptied midsection aching for meat. Fresh meat. Flesh. Human flesh. A chunk of an arm or even a kidney would suffice. The others like itself were tainted with poison, spoiled with decay and hook worms. They couldn't be eaten… but if they could…

_Thump._

And maybe it would finally get its wish.

The Walker staggered towards the boarded building across the road and stared dumbly up at the structure where it had heard the abrupt bang. It could have been a body hitting the tile, it could have been a bird dropping from the sky. But if it was meat then it was wanted regardless.

Its skull was suddenly divvied in half by the sharpened blade of an ax, splitting its cerebral cortex in perfect two. The creature dropped to the pavement with a slick _thud. _Lilly wrenched the weapon from its head and wiped the grey matter from her weapon off on the grass. "Dumbass," she hissed, lifting the weighty rock up from the dirt where it had fallen after impacting the wall.

She shouldered her backpack and moved off down the road, creeping along the sidewalk with her gaze fixated on the horizon. If she moved fast enough she could make it to the base and back again by the end tide of the afternoon without a problem (hopefully) – and fifteen minutes later the outskirts of Macon came into view.

She passed into town quietly, Lee's ax raised defensively in her grip. The scent of death lingered beneath the graying sky above; it was noticeably darker over here than at the motel, almost like it was an ominous forewarning for anyone left alive on the forsaken planet: DO NOT ENTER. Her spine prickled along her spine and she instinctively pressed against the rigid surface of a brick wall.

A creeping musk of curdled meat passed by her along with the wandering zombie, its oblivious gaze fixed on whatever was down the road. She held her breath as it shambled by, dragging a trail of spilled intestines and unidentifiable liquids in its wake.

Lilly stepped around it and moved off down the next several blocks until Everett Pharmacy could be recognized in her line of sight. The front of the store was now vacant of Walkers as she hoped; she figured the dead had given up after realizing no one was inside that store anymore. Satisfied, she broke into a sprint and approached the collapsed front doors slick with grime.

Corpses still littered the rooms and a single strike to the back of the skull floored a straggler behind the front desk. It had been chomping on a severed arm, probably from someone who made an attempt to raid the store. Lilly's inquiries were confirmed when she found the freshly zombified remains dragging across the back room. Another swing of the ax put the creature out of its undead misery with ease.

She crossed behind the counter. There was still plenty of medicine for her to salvage, but she stuck with Benadryl and Nitroglycerine pills. She filled the bottom of the bag and moved across to a bottom row of boxes, rifling through the shelf's contents.

Finally she found painkillers and chucked them into the bag as well, moving off through the back room door and receding out onto the street. Across the road there was an overturned motorcycle crushing a Walker at the waist. Its hollowed eyes pierced her with an agonizing stare and its arms reared up to claw the air. Lilly could tell by its stained leather jacket it had once been the proud owner of the vehicle – a Harley Davidson brand, perhaps – but now it was just another mindless zombie. She checked the fuel gauge on the bike: empty. _Of course_.

The Walker reached out again. For a moment Lilly pitied its existence; it was nothing but a horrible epitome of nightmares, prone to knowing nothing but merciless killing and eating. She hoisted the ax over her head. The Walker froze; its whited out gaze steered upwards to observe the blade glinting melodramatically in the sunlight. Its arms dropped submissively, like it was accepting its fate.

Like it _wanted _her to end it.

She dropped the blade into its cranium, splattering grey matter across the wall behind it. This time around, Lilly was filled with a sick sense of remorse. Killing the dead wasn't supposed to have this effect – they weren't human anymore. They didn't think. They didn't… They weren't… They…

"Pathetic, isn't it?"

Lilly scoffed, withdrawing the blade from the ghoul's shattered skull. "I thought I told you not to follow me?"

Lee shouldered the rifle, allowing a smug smirk to stitch into his blank expression. "I'm not letting you do this by yourself." The humor dissipated from his voice. "But you've really created a problem. I had to lie about going hunting to pass the time."

Lilly rolled her crystallized eyes skyward. "I told you not to follow me. This will be easier if I go _alone_."

"You're not going alone; I won't let you. So either we turn around and return to the motor inn where we can _regroup_"—he grabbed his ax and gave her the rifle_—"_or we can press forward and you can stop complaining about my company."

"Ugh, between you and Kenny… is it really _that_ difficult to get a single blink's worth of time to myself?"

Lee sighed. "If it means saving your life than yes."

"You're not saving my life. In fact, you're probably only going to get me killed."

"Well, until we're either Walker chow or back at the inn we're gonna be partners. You're stuck with me."

Lilly groaned. "Fine! Whatever! Just stay out of my way or I'll turn you into Walker bait!" She gyrated away from him and tromped down the street grumbling about his stubborn streak, aware that he was at her heels…

…Aware that he was grinning and shaking his head in her wake.

* * *

**Next chapter: **Lilly instinctively shoved Mark to the floor and the Walker pinned her against the wall, sinking its razor-edged teeth into her forearm.

* * *

**Author's note moved down here.**

_Thank you for so many reviews last chapter! I really loved the feeback! :D Anyway, no I'm not bashing Carley just in case you were wondering. She's awesome and the nose thing was just a random little something to emphasize the collapsing framework of the group. Also, Carley is now a special character. She has weird dreams with fake Doug and has an acute hearing deformity. More twists to come in the following chapters. I'm also going to include the "next chapter" previews at the end of every chapter. Still checking for errors._

_Thanks for reading, review if you enjoyed or have any questions/comments!_


	3. The Outsider

**Chapter 3: The Outsider**

_Disconnect and self destruct o__ne bullet at a time_  
_What's your rush now, everyone will have his day to die_  
_If you choose to pull the trigger, should your drama prove sincere_  
_Do it somewhere far away from here_

* * *

Warner Robbins was surrounded in a thick smog of Walkers, their chorus of irritated hisses and hollowed moans echoing into the distilled air. Lilly and Lee crouched behind a stack of crates beside a building labeled _Hanger 11. _She motioned her fingers towards the building across the stretch of runway – _Hanger 8. _The dead were forming a cultivating mass around the structure's front wall.

"Someone must be alive in there," Lee uttered, peering around the corner cautiously.

The duo had arrived only minutes before to find the runways spotted with zombies. Lilly had hot-wired an abandoned SUV that was one of few with gas still left in its tank and they took the route as far as they could without drawing too much attention to themselves. They hadn't expected to see a mass of Walkers here of all places, but their inquiries were set aside for the mean time.

Lilly's grip on her rifle tensed. "That's also where the provisions are kept. Hopefully whoever's inside hasn't depleted the stocks too much." They shuffled by the dead and around the hind wall; Lee dispatched the closest one with his ax and Lilly cracked one in the face with the stock of her rifle. She scaled a stack of crates to the grate in the wall. "It's a ventilation shaft," she uttered, "I've practically memorized the blue prints by heart."

"That's useful," Lee replied quietly, praying the grate off. He boosted her up by the waist and climbed in after her, managing to squeeze his broad shoulders into the tight crawl space. "It's hard to breathe in here."

"Put a cork in it."

They crept along the tight passageway, their respective weapons scratching the hollowed metal path beneath them. There was a faint, deep moan reverberated off the walls, its echo magnified by the enclosed space.

"Careful," Lilly muttered, "these shafts weren't meant for holding more than one person at a time." The moaning – a creaking noise of sorts, like straining metal – seemed to intensify the further down the passage they went. Lee followed Lilly as she rounded the corner. She hissed about the lack of heat in the ducts. "Not too far now," she whispered, gesturing to the next fork in their path.

"Lilly, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure." She glanced left, then right, and decided on turning right. "What's up?"

"Well… I just want your opinion on our group. Do you think they're holdin' up alright?"

Lilly took several moments to drawl over his quizzical remark. Not only was it out of the clear blue and inappropriate for their situation, but she wasn't quite sure how her opinions applied. After another beat she finally responded, "I know Carley hasn't been sleeping well. I'm aware that Kenny is becoming more and more willing to trade logic for the safety of the his family. Obviously as a whole we're not all honky-dory if we're trapped in _here_." She grunted. "So long as everyone keeps their head screwed on right we'll all be fine until the winter comes knocking on our door."

"Or bandits."

"Right. Or bandits." They took a steep slope to the next passage. "I hope it doesn't come to that, though. The last thing we need are a group of self-righteous bastards destroying everything we've worked for." She brushed stray wisps of hair from her eyes. "Why do you ask? Has anyone been acting strange – _er_, than usual – lately?"

"Well, not really. But Kenny decided that he wanted to get the RV running so he could hit the road. He thinks staying in one place for too long is going to be the death of us."

Lilly's lips pressed into a thin line. "He mentioned it to me once. What do you think?"

_I think we're not capable of lasting much longer no matter what we do. _Lee opened his mouth to reply with something a little more positive but the sharp metallic echo of straining aluminum cut him off. The creaking was drowned out by a sudden snap of grinding bolts and weakened panels. He recognized the sound of collapsing framework all too late. "Shit."

The shaft dropped out from beneath them.

They plummeted into the room below a jumbled heap of twisting metal, startled screams and mangling limbs. The impact with the stack of cans knocked the wind out of both of them and the pyramids toppled, flooding the floor with assortments of unmarked and colorful items. Panels fell away from the ventilation system overheard until the structure met the wall, leaving behind a snake-like path of destruction that had a moment ago been their only hope of escaping.

Everything fell still.

Lilly groaned beneath Lee's weight. "G-Get off of me!"

Lee pushed himself up and slid to the floor in a landslide of cans, bumping harmlessly into the toppled vents. Seconds later the rifle dropped down and the stock smacked into the back of his head. "Ow, dammit!"

A shadow was cast over him almost ominously, like an eclipse of the lights overhead. Lee squinted to get a better look at who was peering down at him. "You scared me!" The voice exclaimed and a hand shot out to greet him. Rough finger tips skimmed his chest. "That looked like it hurt. Are you alright?"

"I'll let you know when the room stops spinning." Lee gripped the stranger's gesture and was promptly hauled to his feet.

The man was well built, probably from his training in boot camp. His glasses framed his face and complimented his crystallized blue eyes. His jet black hair seemed naturally spiked back, like a flattened hedgehog, and Lee assumed from his jacket that he was a pilot. "Name's Mark," the guy chirped, "I haven't seen other people in weeks! Well, people still with a pulse, that is. How'd you get in here?"

"Lilly used to work here so she knew her way around." Lee felt the back of his brain spike. "Speaking of…" He whirled around to face her. "Lilly, you OK?"

Lilly struggled to her feet, her expression contorted with pain, and Lee instantly noticed what was wrong. "I'll be fine once this damn axe is out of me…" His axe was embedded into her upper thigh, sending a stream of crimson warmth down her leg. Without a moment's hesitation she hammered the handle with her fist and the blade tore free, splattering blood across the unevenly tiled floor. "SON OF A-!"

"What the hell are you thinking?!" He gripped her by her shoulders and guided her over to a crate Mark quickly brought out for her. She sat down awkwardly, trying to shift all of her weight to one side. "OK, don't worry, I'll bandage it! Do you have something in your bag?"

"Nothing," Lilly hissed bitterly, gripping the gash in vain attempt to slow the bleeding.

Lee glanced at Mark for help. "Do you have something I can use to wrap this up with?"

"No, all we have is food in here…" Mark perked. "Wait, I have an idea!" He bolted across the room and slammed open the locker doors, rifled through the contents displayed like a store front window.

The door beside him was barricaded with boards and nailed planks of oak. From the other side Lee recognized the moan of the mass of Walkers he had seen on their way in. "You hear them too, don't you?" Lilly avowed quizzically, suffocating her injury as her features ebbed into a look of desperation. "This room is in the center of the Hanger, which means that they're getting inside. And we don't have much time…"

Mark returned with a strip of cloth. "Tore a rag. Don't worry, it's clean, but we need to get you out of here if we want to keep it from getting infected." He removed her hands to tie up the wound. "It doesn't look too deep, but deep enough to fret over."

The planks crossing the door snapped.

Mark glanced over at them. "Dammit! All this commotion is stirring them up again! At this rate we won't even have a chance to kiss our asses good bye!"

"Is there a way out?" Lee asked. "Other than the vents, I mean. We're obviously not going through the vents again; they're a wreck."

Mark bit the inside of his cheek. "This room is a dead end." He bit his cheek harder and the bitter taste of copper flooded his senses. "There's one way in and no way out. You guys are stuck with me now… for an hour, at the most. I've known all along that that door was going to give at any time… perhaps sooner is better than later. At this rate death is inevitable, don't you think?"

Lee cursed silently under his breath and rebound his attention to Lilly. She seemed to have receded into her own thoughts – maybe even her own memories – by the stoic, blank expression now plastered on her face. Lee briefly wondered about Clementine. _I have to protect her! She needs me! _He examined Lilly again. Her grip had come loose from her thigh, almost like she knew keeping herself from bleeding to death was pointless.

Mark exhaled an exasperated, defeated sigh. "Sorry you guys had to get stuck here. If you're hungry I have a year's worth of provisions… not that it'll do us any good or anything. So… yeah, sorry." He trekked over to the locker and emptied its innards out onto the floor. Amongst the items were two rifles and taped boxes of ammunition. Not enough to get them out, but it was still impressive.

Lee left Lilly to her thoughts – erm, flashbacks, maybe? – and tromped over to the vents. He examined the damage. "There's no way we're crawling back through there…"

Mark made his way back over to Lilly again. He wound another strip of the rage around her thigh and tied it snugly around the wound. "There," he muttered, still retaining a small smile, "that's better. So, you're Lilly? Lilly Caul? I recognize you from around here. You fixed up my plane once – last year, actually! Remember? The mechanic was out and you filled in for him."

Lilly spared him a glance. "I kind of remember. You also hit the wrong button on the control panel and almost took off my hand with your jet's blades."

Mark blinked. "I'll go… do something… over there now." He briskly paced over to the cans scattered across the floor and started to stack them up.

The undead scratched at the door outside.

After twenty whole minutes of their irritating racket Lee decided to investigate every inch of the room. He found an arched doorway that led into a bathroom. The plumbing seemed fine and there was clean water from the sink. Just no way out. There wasn't a vent in this room, either, which was an instant downer.

"Wanna know what this situation reminds me of?" He mused, circling back into the main room. Mark stared at him intently. "Those movies where the people have those secret passages hidden behind a wall. And they use them to escape."

"That's wishful thinking on your part," Mark told him matter-of-factly. "No secrets here."

Lee glanced at Lilly who was gazing around. "What's up Lil? You look like you know something we don't."

"I know a way out."

"What?"

Lilly forced herself to her feet and limped over to the wall beside the row of lockers. Her knuckles rapped against the metal, and then the surrounding area. Finally she pushed her back against the side of object and it slid along the tile with ease. Gradually it uncovered a hall – lined with white tiles and walls like an asylum corridor. "Back exit!" She announced.

Mark hollered something incoherent in French before switching back to English. "That's fantastic! We can get out of here!"

"Blue prints," Lilly said before Lee could even think to question how she figured that out. She removed the backpack and tossed it at him. "Fit whatever you can into it! Hurry!"

Mark brightened. "I have two duffle bags! I'll fill them!"

Lilly snatched up the weapons and waited at the entrance for several minutes before they returned, bags in hand… just as the door lurched forwards and the smell of death of mold-devoured decay filled the room before the Walkers did. "GO!" Lilly snapped, limping down the hall in their wake. The hall was narrow, only allowing two walkers to fit at a time. That was still more than enough to catch up to them and gut them like a fish.

A door leading to another storage room had been left open. As Mark passed by a Walker lunged from the darkness, raking its claws for his face. Lilly instinctively shoved Mark to the floor and the Walker pinned her against the wall, sinking its razor-edged teeth into her forearm.

The weapons clattered to the floor, and time itself seemed to grind to a halt.

* * *

Carley knew there was something wrong. And apparently she wasn't the only one contracting that vibe.

It started when she noticed that Lilly was no where to be found. Her room was vacant, the lookout point was void of life. That was also when she noticed that Lee was gone as well. He had walked off to check on Lilly when... well, he never came back. Even Clementine didn't know where he went.

By the time the sun started to dip out of the sky Larry was arguing with Kenny about the mysterious whereabouts of their missing group members. The older adult was accusing Kenny of keeping secrets, but Kenny had a valid alibi: he had been with Kat and Duck this whole time, monitoring their son's condition. Carley, despite her attempts at breaking them apart, had to admit that even she was worried now. And Lee told Ken everything… so why wouldn't Kenny know where his friend currently was?

And then she heard the chorus of screeching tires and grinding gears.

"I've got nothing to do with this!"

"If I find out you did have something to do with my daughter's disappearance I'll make you fucking regret the day you were born!"

Carley knew full-well they couldn't hear it like she could. "SUV," she announced. They kept ranting, ignorant to her remark. "I SAID SUV! There's a car coming!" Finally they fell silent. "It's heading this way! That means other survivors!"

"Let's stop them!" Kenny exclaimed, heading with Carley for the barrier walls.

Larry snarled. "They could be dangerous!"

"And they could be Lee and Lilly!" Kenny rebounded, shoving the gate open.

"But what if they're not?!"

The trio barely made it outside the perimeter when the black vehicle splatter-painted with zombie guts came rolling down the road, sliding to a halt just before the sidewalk.

The driver's seat was thrown open and Lee emerged. "No time to explain!" He snapped, drowning out Larry's abrupt accusations and Kenny's bombardment of questions. Mark appeared from the passenger's side and tossed Larry the duffle bags and Kenny the backpack. He greeted Carley before shoving the weapons into her arms. Lee slammed the back door open and lifted Lilly out of the seat bridal-style. "Ken, Duck's meds are in the bag! And get Kat out here!"

"What the fuck did you do?!" Larry roared, almost swinging a punch at Lee had it not been for the girl in his grasp.

Lee set Lilly down on the bed of the truck, patting her cheek to keep her awake. "Lilly, look at me!" Her eyelids fluttered as she registered his voice. "Lilly, I need you to stay with me, OK? Everything will be alright. Just stay with me! Katjaa's gonna fix you up!"

"Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on?!" Larry snapped, dazed from the sudden excitement.

"We had problems getting back to town," Mark answered, "there were zombies everywhere. She lost a lot of blood on the way over."

"Who the hell are you?" Carley retorted.

"Oh, I'm Mark. Lee and Lilly saved my life!"

Carley rolled her eyes skyward. "Good for you."

Kat shoved them all aside and she set a roll of gauze on the trunk. She briskly worked to patch up the wound with what supplies she had left over in her room – some antibiotic ointment and gauze. "What happened to her?" She asked after a minute of tense silence.

"We fell from a ventilation shaft," Lee explained carefully, expecting to get sucker-punched by Larry at any moment. "My axe impaled her leg. Also make sure you check her right arm"—Kat finished wrapping the injury and glanced at the alignment of marks along her forearm—"she was bitten."

Lee glanced back at Larry… and was thoroughly shocked to find that the old man wasn't even phased. "Larry, I'm sorry she-"

"She's not bitten."

The group fell quiet. Clementine peered around the corner of the RV to observe them, too afraid to approach and get involved in this argument teetering on the edge of a civil war. Kenny passed by her and approached them from behind, his eyebrows knitted together to form his typically agitated expression. "You mean to tell me she was _bitten?_ Now she's going to turn into another one of those things!"

"She's not bitten," Larry reiterated, folding his arms over his broad chest.

"Don't be a stubborn idiot!" Kenny hissed, "If you get bit you _turn_! That's all there is to it, dammit!"

Katjaa glanced over her shoulder. "No, Larry's right. There is no blood." There was a pause. "Her entire arm is fake."

"Fake?" Carley echoed. "Like… prosthetic?"

"Specifically… bionic." The reply seemed absurd for the moment, but as the situation sunk in confusion ebbed into relief. "Her skin is latex, meant to cover the arm from over exposure to the outside elements." Kat tore the false skin away at its broken seams, unraveling a network of wires masked beneath the silver-gleaming casings. Her upper arm, shoulder, forearm, and hand were encased with metal, leaving her joints as exposed wires. The flesh tore away up to her shoulder before it disconnected from the real thing.

"She lost her arm to a plane engine three years ago," Larry explained briefly, picking up the duffel bag from the ground and handing it to Carley. "But that's a story for some other day when it actually becomes your damn business!" Wordlessly he stormed towards his room and slammed the door shut.

Kenny glared accusingly at Lee and Mark. "You two have a _lot _of explaining to do."

Lee merely glanced over and met Clementine's perplexed stare.

"To be honest, Ken… I don't even know where to begin."

* * *

**Next chapter:** "You want to kiss me. And yes, I'll let you."

* * *

**Please Review :3**

_Thanks for reading! And thanks for the all the reviews so far! You guys are awesome! ^_^ OK, so... I was going to post this in another two days but I wouldn't have time so I just threw this out there. More twists coming soon XD Because I like twists. Still checking for mistakes because I probably overlooked some. I was just tired while writing this. So, I was watching a game walkthrough and apparently Lilly used to work at Warner Robbins. Which is a real place. I didn't know that until after I wrote this o.o fascinating! If you ever want to know the full info of the chapter song themes just ask._


	4. Shades of Grey

**Chapter 4: Shades of Grey**

_Through the darker shades of grey_  
_I see beauty in the rain_  
_Heart stopped on the ground where I'm lying,  
__Called out to a stranger and die_

* * *

The flames crackled in the rust-bitten fire pit, igniting the kindle with a blended vortex of monochrome colors that reminded Lee of a sunset. In the background he recognized the familiar echo of boney claws scratching the barrier walls outside the lot; the faint stench of decay and black mold underlined the thick musk of smoke. Although it was still the middle of the summer the evening had been gradually getting frigid since the last drops of sunlight scattered over the horizon.

"That damn walker's going to attract more of 'em if we don't get rid of it." Lee glanced over his shoulder as Kenny passed into the circle, squeezing between Lee's and Carley's chairs. He perched on Lee's other side.

They had set up a ring of lawn chairs around the bonfire after the group decided that sleep wasn't an option. It started with the newcomer Mark and his inauguration into the group with Carley, and then Lee decided he wanted a drink after checking to make sure Clementine was fast asleep, a few minutes later Larry brought out the drinks, and it ended with Kenny who had seen the flickering fire through his window.

"We'll get it later," Lee remarked assuredly, "but for now just ignore it."

Carley glanced at Kenny expectantly. "How's Duck doing?"

"Better now that he had his medicine." Kenny passed his stare over to Larry on his left. "Got a drink?"

"Plenty," Larry replied, rifling through the content of the cooler at his feet. He popped the cap of a cheap, bitter beer with his bare hands – a talent that always reminded Lee of his unruly strength – and handed it over.

Silence once again settled across the group like a thin sheet. It had only been three weeks and already things were awkward for them. Lee noticed that the tension tended to veer towards himself, especially when he had to choose between Lilly's valid side of the argument or his loyalty to Kenny. _Speaking of Lilly… _"Carley," he addressed and she met his calculated gaze out of the corner of her eye, "have you checked on Lilly?"

"I did about an hour ago to change her bandages."

"Something about me now?" As if on cue Lilly appeared from the darkness behind Larry. She was slouched to shift a majority of her weight to one leg.

Larry chuckled. "Ha, knew you'd be up and about in less than a day! Take a seat."

She limped over to the vacant chair next to Carley and plopped down with a hiss of pain. Her fingers massaged her injury beneath the bandages encasing her upper thigh. "Shit that hurts. Nothing alcohol can't solve though, right?"

"Finish mine," Lee offered, reaching across Carley with a polite 'excuse me' to hand off the bottle of whiskey. "I ain't gonna drink it."

Lilly accepted it carefully. "Huh, thanks. Good year, too."

And, as anticipated, the group fell back into quiet. Lee leant back in his seat and allowed his head to press against the rest.

_Scritch scritch._

_Scritch scritch._

Carley drummed her fingers against the sturdy glass of the unlabeled bottle. She had never been one for drinking, but it wasn't like society could frown upon her developing bad habits any longer.

_Scritch scritch._

_Scritch scritch._

"I wish it would stop scratching," she uttered, helping herself to a swig. The bitter, dark beer encased inside burned her throat as it passed into her stomach. The overwhelming sensation assisted her mind to stray away from thinking of Doug.

_Scritch scritch._

_Scritch scritch._

_Scritch scritch scritch scritch._

_Scritchscritchscritchscritch –_

Kenny chucked his empty bottle at the barrier wall and it exploded in every direction like a shrapnel grenade, littering the pavement with shards of transparent glass that glinted in the moonlight. "Shut the hell up!"

Carley passed her bottle to Larry to finish. "I'm out. See you guys in the morning." Everything was silent after they recited their respective good-nights in return (although, Larry's form of "good night" was nothing more than a mere grunt).

When she reached her room the Walker started scratching again.

* * *

_Carley sat rigidly in her chair, her legs crossed one over the other. She wasn't quite in the mood to talk to Doug; the events of the day had been stressful, and that smug expression plastered on his face only made her rage swell in the cavity of her chest. A single slap would knock the grin off like a loose Halloween mask. Even though she and Doug had only known each other for a short while – a couple of days – she knew him well enough: he took pleasure in irking her on when she was angry. He was aware that she was incapable of remaining mad for long._

_At least, in here, her nose wasn't broken. That had to count for something…_

_"What?"_

_Doug sipped his coffee – caramel, as labeled on the creamer bottle beside him – and placidly replaced the ceramic mug on the table top. "Nothing."_

_"Then stop grinning."_

_His eyebrow peaked with the adjacent corner of his lips, forming an even more smug expression. "Why? Don't I have a right to be as happy as I want, when I want?" Carley didn't answer so he droned on, "Just because you're upset doesn't mean I have to be. I'm a projection of your mind and your emptiness, not your emotions."_

_"Isn't emptiness an emotion?"_

_"No, it's actually a feeling."_

_"There's a difference?"_

_"Yes. It can't really be expressed that same way happiness and sadness can be." He took another swig of his drink. "Emptiness is commonly mistaken for despair. You can feel sad and smile, but you'll cry eventually. You can be happy and frown, but eventually you'll laugh. It's one of those universal laws people tend to commonly overlook."_

_Carley barked a harsh laugh. "You should have been a psychologist."_

_Doug shrugged impassively, adjusting his position in his seat. "Then I wouldn't have been an IT guy… and you wouldn't be alive right now."_

_"But you would be."_

_"Hmph. I doubt that." He sipped his drink again, allowing an awkward silence to settle uncomfortably between them. The clock suspended on the wall above the sink ticked ominously. With every passing minute the hands remained firmly in place on the 7 and 3; the gears kept clicking, however. "I don't regret saving you, if that's what you're implying."_

_"I'm not implying anything," she responded bitterly._

_He wasn't convinced. "Let me guess: you also don't feel guilty about my death? I mean, Lee did choose to save you over me. And I was torn apart right in front of your eyes. Had you been smarter you would have realized that your clip was low on bullets."_

_"Shut up!" She seethed and the clock on the wall dropped, smashing into pieces on the marble floor. "Stop prying into my mind!"_

_"Carley, I _am _your mind, remember? A projection in the form of dearly beloved, parents'-basement-cute, nerdy Doug." A twinge of amusement sparkled in his eyes when she contemplated chucking something at his head. "Don't even think about it. I may be fake but I'm not a hologram. You mug will knock me right out."_

_Carley grunted. "Great, you can read my thoughts, too?"_

_A bemused smirk replaced his standard grin, stitching its way across his features. Carley almost strangled him right then and there. "Yes. What do I keep telling you? Figment of your imagination means that I know you better than you know yourself."_

_Carley tensed at her lips pressed into a thin line. "Fine. What am I thinking now?"_

_"You're wondering why the calendar always says that it's Monday, but is missing the rest of the date."_

_"How about now?"_

_"You're imagining that my chair is breaking so I can fall and you can laugh your gorgeous ass off."_

_Carley allowed a small quirk of her lips to upturn into a smile. "Now?"_

_"You want to kiss me. And yes, I'll let you."_

_With that Carley shot up from her seat and flitted over to him. She retained her agitated glare though, determined to wipe the smirk right off of his face. "I don't need your permission to do whatever I want inside my own mind!" He stood but she waltzed right past him into the kitchen. Her attention fixed itself on the assortment of items in the cabinets. "Do we have any sugar in here?"_

_Doug leaned his lips to her ear. "It's already on the table."_

_She shuddered as his heated breath tickled the sensitive spots of her neck. He smelled like… melons. More specifically honey dew and coconut, a strange combination despite its attractive scent. "A-Are you sure?"_

_"Yes. …No. Yes?" He glanced over and located the uncapped jar beside the napkin holder. "Er, yes. Now I'm sure." Carley stiffened like a flag pole when his hands grasped her waist. He clearly noticed her freeze and his smirk returned. "What, having second thoughts?"_

_"I was just-!"_

_He forced her to face him and pinned her hips to the edge of the counter. His grip didn't hurt nor was he intimidating, though, almost like he knew she didn't like anything rough. _Of course he knows that Car, he's a stupid figment of your stupid imagination. _Despite the realization her spine tingled; her heart slammed against the cage of her chest. Her fingers found his forearms and she gripped them – hard – but didn't make an attempt to pry herself free. _

_"You," he muttered, "were just… what?"_

_"You're not real," she said, averting the subject. "It'll be like kissing myself."_

_"No it won't." He leaned closer to her so their lips barely brushed. "In a sense, perhaps. But I'm not you. I'm Doug."_

_"Projection Doug."_

_"Precisely." His palms slid up her waist and along her sides, moving carefully to her back. He pressed her closer to him. "I don't know anything about Doug. I don't have his memories, or his skill set. I am only compromised of what you have come to know."_

_Carley slipped her hands up his arms, indulging herself in the texture of his jacket. "So are you going to kiss me or do I have to beg?" He answered her by closing the gap between them, igniting a flare the spanned across her body from her chest to her finger tips. She gladly accepted him when he deepened the contact, sliding his tongue along her lower lip. Her brain tingled in places left forgotten. Her knees trembled. Her nails dug harmlessly into his shoulder blades._

_Doug receded from the kiss. "Happy?"_

_She sighed, content. "It makes me wonder what it would have been like if you were still alive." He didn't reply to that. "You're not that fat."_

_His eyebrow quirked. "Excuse me?"_

_"You're not really fat. In fact, you're muscular. I never mentioned that before." She slid her fingers across his chest and stomach in a single, fluid motion, pressing gently against his shirt. "It's like you're literally made of rock."_

_"I'm sure real Doug was a wrestler in high school or something. It probably ran in the family."_

_Carley observed him through slotted eye lids, her chocolate orbs disconnected from the world around her. "Doug… kiss me again." Her fingers completely unzipped the rest of his jacket and it pooled to the floor. "Please." He wordlessly leaned into her, feverishly crushing his lips against hers. This time he didn't hold back – the passion of the heated exchange was numbing their judgment anyway – and his hands slipped the lavender vest from her shoulders, discarding it without a single care for where it wound up._

A gunshot echoed in the distance, startling Carley into reality.

Instinct took over and she snapped up the pistol from her nightstand, sweeping her aim around the room. When the immediate danger didn't present itself she tossed off her sheets. Outside of her room dawn was peaking over the treetops, mingling bashful streaks of orange into the night bound clouds. She shivered when a bitter wind swept across the motor inn; she silently cursed to herself for still wearing shorts during this time of year.

Her first thought was to visit Lee and see if he had heard the gun shot. It had been so abrupt she wasn't able to judge how far away it came from, but she prayed it hadn't been close to the lot. That would be yet another reason to worry.

_I don't want to wake Clementine, _she told herself, pacing by Lee's door. To her immediate surprise she noticed Lilly measuring the width of her window with planks of wood. "What the hell are you doing up at this time?"

Lilly spat a nail from between her teeth and it clanked against the cement walkway. "Renovating. What's your excuse?"

"I heard a gun go off."

The other woman wasn't wearing her jacket, almost like the frigid air wasn't bothering her in the slightest. Her bionic arm still kind of freaked Carley out, especially with the way it moved so perfectly like an actual human limb. Well, that was its initial purpose but… it was still creepy none-the-less…

Lilly set the plank against the wall. "I didn't hear anything. Maybe you were imagining things."

Carley bit her lip when she heard the resonating of another gun shot. This time it was much further away; she knew Lilly hadn't heard that one. It meant that there were still survivors… _were _being the appropriate term.

"You should go back to bed," Lilly said blatantly, marking the edge of the wood with a sharpie. "I need you on watch first thing tomorrow morning."

Carley rolled her eyes sarcastically. "For the last time Lilly, you're not in charge! I _don't_ take orders from you." She braced herself for a sudden barrage of brash remarks and point-taken statements, but to her surprise Lilly merely picked up the next plank and started measuring it against the window. Carley wondered if giving someone the silent treatment was really more effective than fighting it out. "Are you listening to me? I'm _not _taking watch tomorrow! I've done it too many damn times this week! You know my vision is impaired and-!"

"Lee, Kenny, and I were going to scout the forest for bandit camps," Lilly interjected, marking the wood again. "We need someone to watch the base with so many of us gone at one time."

Carley's jaw hung slack. Lilly should have been blowing a gasket by now. _What is this wizardry?_ "You shouldn't go. You're leaving us vulnerable!"

"Mark's going to stick around. He has a level head." Her lips twisted into a frown. "Although he did almost take off my hand that one time…"

"Ugh, why aren't you fighting with me?!" Carley took a sharp turn on her heel. "Everything with you is an argument and then suddenly it's not! If you're not bipolar I don't know what's wrong with you! Take some damn pills or something!" She stormed into her room and slammed the door shut, leaving Lilly to merely shrug and continue her work.

Carley slipped back under her covers and fumed silently to herself. Stupid Lilly and her stupid rules and those stupid zombies and stupid Doug… She shuddered as her memories of the dream hit her with all the gracefulness of a careening landslide.

_Damn you, Doug._

This time, when she finally fell back asleep, Doug decided against saying anything at all. He also wasn't smirking.

* * *

"_Romeo and Juliet. _Yeah, I don't think so…"

There was a distant ticking resonating in the background of the library. The antique grandfather clock went ignored.

"_Macbeth? _Eh, pass…"

Anxious blue eyes skimmed the contents of the shelves before him. "_A Midsummer Night's Dream_," he read aloud, moving to the next row of books, "No. _Beowulf_. Nope. No, no, no, read it, read it and hated it, no, no, I liked that one, no, maybe?" Slender fingers lapped off the thin layer of dust that had settled on the bindings of the novelized plays arranged, quite haphazardly, along the book case.

"Find anything?" A voice echoed out from several rows down.

"Not yet," he replied, shuffling across to the next section. Fiction offered him more choices… but he still wasn't coming up with anything worthwhile. He cursed himself for being a picky reader. "Ugh, this is pointless! You know I'm awful at making decisions."

A pair of dual colored orbs – one brown, the other an unusual shade of blue-gray – peered at him from around the corner of the shelves. "What do you expect me to do about it? Just get an armful and figure it out later."

"But Travis…"

"Not buts!" Travis Miller moved fully into view, his own arms locked around various books of sizes and colors. "See, I'm set for the week. And I didn't even read the backs! I liked the cover titles… and the authors are well-known. So it can't be awful if it's famous, right?"

"What about that series about the sparkling vampire? That was awful and famous."

"I think the word you're looking for is _infamous_, Ben."

Ben Paul chucked lightly and finally picked a leather-bound book from the shelf. He and Travis became inseparable back in fifth grade when the older boy protected Ben from the bullies of the upperclassmen. It was one of those moments you would typically see in a cartoon or a family movie: kid gets beat up by other kids, hero kid saves the day. They become best pals for life. So on and so forth. It had been different for them though. Travis was one of those bullies, a constant bother since kindergarten, and had it not been for their encounter the day before Ben was certain he still wouldn't have any friends.

Back then Ben was typically shoved around until he handed over his lunch money to the pack leader of the three bullies: a boy named Jason Roberts who was now head of the school's Football team and, to be blunt, still a jerk. Travis and some other boy who had moved to Ohio named Ryan Thornback were his lackeys to say the least. Travis was also Ben's neighbor across the street, and one dull Sunday morning their mothers decided to leave them together while they went out.

"Ow!" Travis barked when a line of books tumbled from the shelf above and impacting his skull one at a time. "Dammit!"

Ben glanced over at him briefly before returning to his flashback. He had learned a lot about Travis that day: musically gifted, talented with the saxophone, didn't enjoy pop, rap, or metal, allergic to dogs but loved cats, and had a guilty pleasure for soap operas. They got along well, too, after Ben forgave him for his years of torment. The following day, when Jason and Ryan approached Ben with their eyes steely like sharks', Travis gave Jason his first bloody nose of the year, and received a black eye in return.

"Yo, Ben!" Travis knocked his knuckles against his friend's brow. "Come on, we've been gone too long. Everyone's gonna wonder where we went."

"Sorry," Ben apologized quietly, grabbing a random assortment of books from the rack in front of him.

Travis furrowed his brow, giving his best friend a quizzical look. "What's the matter? You seem flushed."

"I was remembering how we met and all." They had been inseparable, and Ben silently hoped that the zombie apocalypse didn't change any of that. He knew that his parents and sister were probably undead themselves by now, but until that was confirmed Travis was all he had left.

Travis brushed off Ben's usual quirkiness and loaded the books – their only real form of entertainment at this point – into his navy striped backpack and zipped it up. He slung it over his shoulders. "Come on, let's go."

They dodged around the librarian Ms. Stein who was pinned beneath a toppled book case. She had once been an intelligent, beautiful women who appeared younger than she probably was. Now her eyes was glazed over with chalky whiteness, holding no signs of pain or remorse – only the want to kill, to feed, to keep killing, to keep feeding. Her hair was a haphazard mess of dried blood and brain matter from feeding on one of the teenagers prior to Travis tipping the shelving unit on her. She grasped the air with her three remaining fingers. A desperate plea, perhaps, but there was nothing they could do for her.

Travis slipped out the window first, planting his feet on the roof tiles. Ben crept out backwards and had to search for his footing before he trusted the two-foot drop enough to release his death grip on the window sill. Travis has always been the braver of the two, which led to antics of every mischievous kind. Ben preferred to shut his eyes and wait for it to be over.

They padded out to the rope fastened securely around the pipes for the school's sprinkler system. It had been left there when someone – they weren't sure who – tried to scale down the wall to avoid the chaos in the school halls.

Travis slid down first, hovering fearlessly over a three-story drop that separated him from Ben above and the dead wandering about below. He recognized a select handful of them as faculty and student body members, some former classmates; he paid them no mind and found his footing on the open window sill of the school's gym. He dropped into the opening and landed on the bleachers. Moments later Ben joined him.

The first person to greet them was a very agitated David Parker. "What do I keep telling you boys about going off by yourselves?"

"Sorry Mr. Parker," they recited in chorus, Travis hinting his sarcasm with a melodramatic roll of his eyes and Ben letting his head drop in shame.

The band director muttered something incoherent under his breath before speaking up. "It's my job to protect you kids from the dangers outside. We don't need any more casualties. Your blood will be on my hands for letting you out of my sight."

Travis shrugged off his backpack and unzipped it. "We just got some books because we've all been really bored lately. There's nothing to do here. And it's not like we can just waltz outside and go on a spontaneous field trip."

Mr. Parker wagged his head. "I don't care. Next time tell me you're leaving."

"Yes, sir," the boys said in sync again, still retaining their respective irritated and distraught tones.

When their band director shuffled back down the bleacher steps Ben huddled closer to Travis and focused his attention on the several girls four rows beneath them. They were muttering amongst each other about the family members they hadn't talked to since the world went to hell.

Ben whimpered. "Travis, I want to wake up now… I want to wake up in my room and know that this was all just a terrible nightmare! I want to go _home_."

The other boy reached around and pat Ben's farthest shoulder. "I know buddy. I want to go home too. I want to go home too…"

Travis knew, however, in the darkest corner of his mind, that going home wasn't option.

* * *

**Next chapter: **Travis clamped his hands over Ben's ears so he wouldn't have to hear the screams resonating from down below.

* * *

**Another Fantabulous Author's Note :3**

_Thanks for reading! And thanks for the all the reviews so far! You guys are awesome! ^_^ (huh, I get a lot of guest reviews... that's ok, every review is appreciated :D) OK, so... Carley is clearly missing Doug 0.0... How many of you didn't expect that from last chapter's preview? I surprised myself. It's going to affect Carley from now on, so it's not a 100% positive thing... Time skip next chapter._


	5. Meet Me on the Equinox

**Chapter 5: Meet Me on the Equinox**

_A window, an opened tomb  
The sun crawls across your bedroom, a halo, a waiting room  
Your last breath's moving through you  
As everything, everything ends_

* * *

**October 3rd**

* * *

_Thump. Tick._

_Thump. Tick._

It had been two and a half grueling months since the world first came to an abrupt, cataclysmic end.

By now Travis could tell that the last specks of hope were visibly dwindling from other survivors' expressions; he saw the lack of smiles in Ben's features, he noticed the thick atmosphere of tension that had settled in the gymnasium, he heard the utters amongst the clusters speaking of the negative aspects of life – what Earth had once been, what it probably was now, what it would become – and he observed the constant ceiling of bereaved clouds that had been hovering over the town for the past week. It could have been the shift in weather from summer to autumn as the cycle hit the next solstice.

_Thump. Tick._

_Thump. Tick._

The food supply was running low. It was nothing to be concerned about for another month or so, but the three teachers weren't taking their chances. They had twenty teenagers to care for, a nice uneven ratio, and that was a lot of mouths to feed. Mr. Parker, the gym coach Stan Kirk, and the a woman from outside of town Noreen Rend had been pairing up to scout the halls of the school by climbing through the rope leading to the library. The trips had burnt down to nothing more than weekly scouts – everything worthwhile in the school that had been easily accessible was used up now.

_Thump. Tick._

_Thump. Tick._

Travis tossed the tennis ball against the wall and it rebounded, striking the floor once and returning to his grasp. He was slouched against the bleachers, playing mindlessly with his thoughts fixated on the theory that they could survive longer if they had access to the preservations in the cafeteria. Ben was fast asleep on the first bleacher step behind him, his arm folded beneath his head and his slender form draped under his jacket.

Deciding he was bored with his one-player game he chucked the ball across the gym – where it landed, he had no clue – and he rose to his feet. Across the room the three adults were mumbling something to themselves about the capacity of provisions and the absurd realization that they might have to start going outside the high school grounds to deal with the steep decline in food.

"Tr-Travis…"

The teen glanced over his shoulder at his best friend. "You awake there, pal?"

Ben's eyelid cracked open and a crystallized orb of blue stared up at him quizzically. "What time is it?"

Travis glanced at the clock suspended on the wall above the girl's locker room. "Uhm… just about ten fifteen. You should go back to sleep. There's nothing to worry about right now." _Except for maybe the dead guys wandering around outside…_

Ben shrugged passively and rolled over, settling back into an uncomfortable position. Travis raked his fingers through his obsidian hair and, gathering his wits, approached the adults at the opposing end of the gymnasium. He made sure to stray near Mr. Parker whom he had become more open with over the course of three years (he and Ben were now in their senior year, and had it not been for the onslaught of festering dead people everywhere those three years would be four after graduation. Travis knew they probably weren't going to survive for that long).

"What is it Mr. Miller?"

Travis jumped a little, realizing that Noreen had noticed him before he even stepped foot into their circle around the collapsible table. "I… uh… What are you doing?"

"Debating," Mr. Parker replied blatantly.

"'Bout what?"

"None of your concern," Mr. Kirk rebounded, shooing the kid away with a wave of his hand. "Leave us be."

Travis frowned. "I… uh… ok." He moved back towards Ben and plopped down at his head, draping his arms over the bench behind him. Ben shifted slightly to let Travis know he was falling asleep again.

Three rows up, a group of girls huddled together. Travis recognized one of them as Jenny Pitcher, a sophomore from an opposing school, sighed in defeat and rose from her spot. "I'm going to the bathroom," she announced to her group and soothed down her wrinkled shorts. She padded down the steps, her footfalls jarring the questionably stable bleachers. Travis watched her until she disappeared into the girl's locker room.

_Thump. Tick._

_Thump. Tick._

He snapped his gaze over to the boy who now had possession of the tennis ball. It rebounded back and forth, a blur of stained neon green and fading red lettering, reflecting off the textured wall at a possessive, almost hypnotic tempo. He shrugged impassively and settled against the bleachers, allowing his mind to wander off until he stumbled into darkness. The ball abruptly stopped bouncing.

_It's going to be OK, _he told himself as he lolled off to sleep. _It's OK. It's OK. It's OK…_

* * *

Miles away, Lee Everett's head snapped into the distance. There was an omnipotent darkness creeping in with the dusk-swept shadows crossing the autumn-laced landscape. He zipped up his jacket and approached the edge of the barrier boxing in the motor inn. The ominous feeling didn't pass for several minutes; he hadn't had this kind of overwhelming uneasiness since they first arrived at the tattered motel.

"What's up?" Mark questioned, approaching him from the side. "You look pale."

"I just…" Lee sunk his canine tooth into his lip until it bled. "Have you ever gotten that feeling that somethin' bad's about to happen?"

"All the time, especially now-a-days…" He lowered his voice to a whisper, almost like he was afraid the conversation would be overheard. "Y'know, with the dead wandering around and all…"

Lee hummed in thought. "That's not what I meant, but good point."

"Dude, you're just paranoid. Everyone is." Mark pressed his lips into a thin line as Larry passed by them. They waited until he had cleared out of ear shot before Mark droned on. "Especially him. He seems to distrust everyone – mostly you."

"He's just lookin' out for Lilly," Lee defended, moving away from the barrier. Mark kept pace with him. "I distrust a lot of people, but only because I'm tryin' to protect Clementine. So I understand where he's comin' from."

"But why _you_ out of _everyone else_?"

"Uhm…" Lee contemplated his answer. He could tell Mark the truth, or he could lie… neither of which he was too keen on. "He has his reasons, I guess."

"Uh-huh…" Mark pressed his tongue to his cheek. Lee's course had averted around the RV where Lilly was perched up top, doing her last minute sweep for the night. "How's it looking up there, Lil?"

"Clear," she answered despondently, "which means I'm out." She gripped the ladder and slid down the rungs, gracefully hitting the cracked pavement. Stray pebbles crunched beneath the soles of her boots. "Mark, barrier's all locked up?"

"Good to go Boss," Mark avowed, snapping a two-fingered salute.

"Thanks."

"_De rien_."

Lilly's eyebrow peaked. "You're on watch tomorrow morning." She strode off towards her room, passing by Kenny who was searching under the hood of the RV. "Get some sleep Kenny, it'll be there when you wake up… just as it always is." He muttered an incoherent reply; she brushed stray wisps of her bangs from her face, shoved her hands into her jean pockets and ventured to her room.

Lee noticed Mark's gaze didn't stray. "Keep your tongue in your mouth before Larry rips it out."

"I – wait, what?"

Lee wagged his head, straggling over to Kenny's side. The older man reared up when a sudden spark struck his wrist; the back of his skull connected with the hood with enough force to dent the frame. "Dammit! _Shit_!"

"You're fine," Lee told him reassuringly, patting his shoulder. "Nothing you haven't been through before."

"Yeah, yeah." Kenny massaged his swelling bump and slammed the hood down. "Dammit… at this rate I'll never get this thing fixed! Dammit, dammit, damn it _all_!" He slapped Lee's hand away from his collar and stomped towards his room, kicking aside an empty oil drum in a fit of rage.

Mark flinched. "He'll sleep it off. Anyway, I guess that's it for all of us. I'm turning in for the night." He started towards the steps but then paused and turned. "Also, don't worry so much. I'm sure Larry's grudge will pass, and hopefully so will this nightmare. We'll get through this together, _all of us._"

Lee forced a grim smile. _I hope you're right…_

* * *

What first awoke Travis was the vague, eerie shadow crawling around the back of his mind, plaguing his dreams with dreadful images of burning landscapes and whispers of the encroaching dead. Then a piercing scream shattered the stillness around him. He snapped into alertness when the screaming ensued, realizing it wasn't from his dream – it was real. It was very, very _real_.

His heterochromatic gaze scanned the empty bleachers beside him; scuffed wood was ignited like amber flames beneath the morning light. "Ben? Ben!"

"Over here!" Ben waved at him from across the gymnasium. He was part of the crowd ringed around the propped open door of the girl's locker room. Mr. Parker was barking at everyone to herd back and give Ms. Rend some time to comfort the sobbing girl – Sarah Perkins, if Travis was remembering correctly – curled in her arms.

Travis approached him frantically. "Dude, what's going on?"

"Jenny Pitcher's dead."

Travis felt his spine tingle. "Ah shit, when did that happen?"

"Last night." Ben gestured to the sobbing girl through the cracks in the group. "Sarah found her this morning. I guess she just couldn't take it anymore… She popped some pills, Trav… _a lot of them_." There was a pang of sadness lingering behind his eyes. Travis knew that Ben was sensitive, especially to death – even before the zombies his family members were prone to dying from one illness or another – and even if he hadn't known Jenny Pitcher aside from a mere introduction it still, clearly, bothered him.

Travis gripped his shoulder. "OK, OK… come on, let's-"

A shadow shifted in the darkness of the locker room. The putrid scent of damp mold leaked through the doorway like trickling rivulets of water. Ms. Rend didn't notice until it was too late – Jenny Pitcher's corpse lunged forward like a fish out of water, sinking her freshly rotting teeth into the teacher's shoulder.

Everything escalated within ten seconds after that.

They could have advanced on the zombie; worked together as a group to take it down. They had plenty of baseball bats to crack open Jenny's Pitcher's skull, to re-kill her, to make sure this time she didn't get up again. But instead they all let the fear sink in.

The first scream from a girl was enough to ignite the fire.

The ring scattered like startled pigeons; a chorus of shrieking survivors who fled in every direction with no real escape from the chaos. Travis was rammed to the floor and his skull cracked against the impact of bone-on-wood. His world was thrown into a blurry haze for a moment – he could still see the results of the untamed panic unfolding around him, however; one boy, frightened beyond logical thinking, severed the chains of the gym doors by striking their pad lock with his fire axe.

"DON'T!" Someone – Travis could have sworn it was Mr. Parker – hollered, but it was no use.

The zombies that had been cultivating in the lot outside the door flooded in like a busted dam. They pooled over the teen and stumbled into the gymnasium, flailing like hooked trout as they tripped over each other in a fury to get to their prey still racing around in terror.

"Travis!"

Travis recognized Ben's shout and he regained his senses. "B-Ben!"

The taller boy grappled Travis by his arm and half-dragged him up the steps of the bleachers. "We need to climb!" He exclaimed, gesturing to the rope. Three people were already shimmying upwards. Ben forced Travis out the window first; they hooked onto the ropes and scaled up the wall, pulling themselves up and over onto the ledge.

Mr. Parker, who had been one of the three survivors to escape up to the roof, pushed by them and he glanced down to see a boy named Chase climbing up in their wake. "Come on!" He barked, reaching out to offer the other male his hand.

The rope snapped.

Chase dropped to the gathering horde of undead below. His head connected with the pavement, splattering blood across the ancient asphalt. The zombies gyrated in response to the abrupt noise before falling over his steaming body, ripping chunks of flesh from his torso. Travis gripped Ben's collar and towed him back against the water pipe so they were away from the edge of the roof.

"It just broke…" Ben uttered, trembling under the influence of fear and adrenaline. "It just… he… And they… Jenny was…"

"_Ssh_." Travis clamped his hands over Ben's ears so he wouldn't have to hear the screams resonating from down below. The three other survivors – Sarah Milton and Rick Aster were the other two – huddled on either side of them, numb with shock and despair. Mr. Parker collapsed to his knees and buried his face into his hands.

"It's OK," Travis muttered under his breath, aware that Ben couldn't hear him. _It's OK, _he instead told himself, sinking into his own thoughts as Ben curled up beside him, _it's OK. It's OK. It's OK. It's OK._

The screaming intensified and his hold on Ben tightened.

_It's OK. It's OK. It's OK._

Then there was nothing but the sound of the dead rigorously feeding on what remained of their group.

_It's OK it's OK it's OK—_

* * *

**October 19th, two weeks later**

* * *

"Ah, dammit, where are we?"

"You really think we'd know that?"

"It's a rhetorical question, Travis. Keep the sarcastic comments to yourself."

"Sorry Mr. Parker, force of habit."

They had gone three days without food since their vague attempt at a camp had been raided, leaving them two survivors down and with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Ben noticed that Travis had been a little more hostile lately, almost like everything annoyed him just for existing. He couldn't blame him though. Hunger, migraines, and losing a bet had always made Travis an unhappy camper. His concussion had passed; his tendency to get headaches however… not so much.

"Dammit," Travis hissed, stumbling over a fallen tree branch hidden beneath a blanket of leaves, "why'd we stick to the forest anyway? These leaves are too crisp. Damn zombies will hear us coming from a mile away!"

Ben smirked faintly. "Don't be so melodramatic. Their hearing can't possibly be _that_ great."

"Wouldn't surprise me at this point."

Mr. Parker was several paces ahead of them, his heavier footfalls snapping twigs beneath his sneakers like fragile shards of glass. Travis winced at the louder breaks and he instinctively – at this point even reflexively – glanced around to make sure there weren't any undead corpses moving off in the distance. They had been lost in the woods for a while now, spending their days searching for other survivors and resorting to sleeping in trees at night. Autumn was hitting the bitterness of its cycle as the month slowly ebbed into November, a potential disaster for when the winter swept in. They knew if they didn't find somewhere to stay soon they would die, whether it be from starvation or the frigid cold.

Ben didn't have the heart to mention the odds of surviving to see their next birthdays. "How many of us do you think are left?"

Travis shrugged. "I'm sure there's a bunch of people, actually. Just not here."

"Here?"

"Like… in the state. Maybe some states were fenced in by the military or something. Or if not states then entire cities. Or at least towns. Enough to keep civilization going. I'm sure _we_ drew the short end of the straw, but there's other people out there."

Ben felt slightly relieved by his friend's optimism. "Besides those bandits, right?"

The image of the crossbows drilling into Sarah's chest and Rick's skull earned a shudder out of Travis. They had barely escaped the attack on their camp, and he preferred not to flashback. "Yeah, I'm sure there is."

"I guess. But what if there's not?"

"…There _is_."

Before Ben could press the conversation further there was a sickening, metallic snap followed by Mr. Parker's agonizing yelp. "Mr. Parker!" The boys exclaimed in unison. He dropped to the ground howling in pain and they encircled him. A bear trap had its teeth sunk into his ankle; crimson liquid soaked through his jeans and painted the leaves beneath him a vermillion red.

Travis hooked his fingers into the gaps between the trap's jaws. "I'll get it off! Help me Ben!" Ben visibly stiffened, freezing as the fear began to take hold. "No, Ben! Look at me! Don't do this now!" He pulled against the force of the trap. **_"BEN!"_**

His friend snapped out of his trance. "Ss-sorry!" He slipped his fingers into the other gap. "OK, _OK_!"

"Pull!"

They wrenched the contraption with all their might, but to no avail. The metal sank deeper into Mr. Parker's leg, earning another scream of white hot pain. "It's no use!" Ben stated, removing his fingers from the contraption. "What do we do?!"

"First we stop the bleeding!" Travis unhooked his belt from around his jeans and tied off David's blood flow at his thigh.

They felt several pairs of eyes staring down at them. Travis quickly grabbed Ben's sleeve and defensively pulled his friend behind him. The three men watching them had shock written all over their faces. "What in the hell happened here?!" The closest one with the trucker hat exclaimed.

"He walked into the trap!" Ben answered.

Travis elbowed him in the gut. "Shut up Ben! We don't know these people! They could be the guys who raided our camp and killed Sarah and Rick!"

The other man with the fire ax raised his hands defensively. "Hey, hey, calm down. We're not here to hurt you. We just heard the screaming and came to see what was going on. If you want we can try to get him out!"

"Please!" Ben pleaded.

Travis snarled. "Seriously, Ben, _seriously_?!"

That same man faced his friend at his side. "Mark, try it."

"Lee!" The trucker-hat man snapped, "We can't afford to help him! His shouting's gonna attract too many Walkers!"

"Dammit, Kenny! We'll at least make an attempt!"

Mark kneeled down to fiddle with the contraption, his crystalized blue eyes appearing almost gray in the reflecting light. Over Mr. Parker's screaming Travis picked up on the faint sounds of snapping twigs and crunching leaves. He glanced around, heterochromatic gaze going wide with sudden panic. "Oh no!"

The Walkers emerged from the tree line like shambling shadows, splitting away from the backdrop on a jerking, haphazard gait.

Mark glanced up from the trap. "It's been altered! There's no release latch. I can't get it off…!"

Lee shoved him aside. "Fine, cover me then!" He swung his ax down on the chain, shooting sparks across the grass. Rifle shots blasted behind him, mowing down the advancing onslaught of undead. Ben covered his ears, shaking like a wet dog. Travis glanced between him, then Lee, to the zombies and back around again. The situation was, once again, spiraling out of control.

And he had no idea what to do.

There was no escaping, there were no barrier walls he could hide behind, he didn't have a gun to shoot with, nor a melee weapon of any sort to either help kill the zombies or help free Mr. Parker. He was useless, just as he had always been since the whole world went to hell in a hand basket.

"Lee!" Kenny snapped, shooting another Walker square in the forehead, "Hurry! We're wasting ammo here!"

Lee peered down at Mr. Parker's leg. "This is gonna hurt man."

David knew exactly what was coming next. "Oh shit! No, nonono! Don't you _dare_! Try the chain again! Try _anything_! Just don't-!" The blade swung down, slicing straight into his shin. He screamed again. The ax drilled through his bone the second time; a third swing almost cut cleanly through; the fourth chop hacked off his limb completely, severing it from his knee. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and his whole world went black.

Ben gasped. "I-Is he dead?!"

"No," Mark replied, "he just fainted."

Travis shuddered. "I think I'm gonna be sick…" He felt his stomach twist like a professional contortionist. "Oh, yeah, I'm definitely gonna be sick…" He whirled around and expelled the acids in his gut. Ben pat his back reassuringly.

Kenny called out. "Hey, enough foolin' around! We need to go!"

Mark lifted David onto his shoulders and the group raced off into the underbrush, leaving behind the shambling horde of the relentless undead – one of whom Travis recognized as Sarah Milton. There was a crossbow arrow still wedged in the center of her chest.

_It's OK, _he told himself. _It's OK it's OK it's OK—_

* * *

**Next chapter: **If it seems too good to be true, there's a ninety-five percent chance that it probably is and you have exactly two minutes to devise an escape plan and get the hell out of there.

* * *

**Another Fantabulous Author's Note :3**

_Thanks for reading! And thanks for the all the reviews so far! You guys are awesome! ^_^ Leave a review if you enjoyed/want to comment/have a question/etc. I'll probably go over the raid of the camp next chapter. I've been wondering what it would be like if Travis had survived, so I encorporated my twist on that into this story._


	6. Zombie Dance

**Chapter 6: Zombie Dance**

_I'm where the worms grow; dead people play  
And now I know it's my soul that is fading  
Fading, decaying, pushing up daisies  
We're already dead (we're already dead)_

* * *

Lilly wiped the rag across her bionic forearm, swiping off the thin coat of grime that had gathered from assisting Kenny with the RV's engine hours before. They had been installing pieces from what they stripped from the SUV still left to linger outside the motor inn. Her reflection stared grimly back at her and she sighed, allowing a cloud of perspiration to form over the metallic surface of her prosthetic. "Dammit…"

"What's wrong?"

Lilly glanced down at her father. "Nothing… It's just one of _those_ days." By those days she meant… well, she wasn't quite sure what she meant. She just assumed that giving a vague answer would prevent Larry's next set of questions pertaining to her well-being.

"Worried about the others?"

"All the time." She slipped her jacket on when a blast of frigid air swept over the lot. "I hope they get back alright." She couldn't imagine how it would tear Clementine apart if Lee turned, or what Kat and Duck would do if Kenny showed up at their doorstep a walking sack of decaying flesh. Mark wasn't exactly expendable, but… would anyone really miss him?

Larry folded his arms back against his chest. "Listen, I'm bored out of my mind over here, so I'm going to work on the barrier." He turned abruptly on his heel and lumbered off, passing by Carley who had been watching them out of the corner of her eye, with her lips pulled taught into a disinterested, thin line.

She was leant against the front of the RV, checking its insides. She had no idea what she was looking at – engine, battery, oil stick tester thingy? – but anything was better than allowing her mind to fixate her thoughts on Doug. Three nights following the awkward kiss she finally started talking to him again, but she was still a little tense. It didn't help that he _wouldn't stop smirking_. She allowed a figment of her imagination to get the better of her; if she wasn't crazy, then Lilly was sane.

Finally she gave in and returned to her lawn chair. It had been set up next to a plank of wood Duck was using to draw on, making it easier for her to watch him (and Clementine when she decided to join them) and make sure he didn't run off and wind up outside the motel. Not that he would, but that kid was A.D.D to the max with a whopping IQ of twelve. He was like that optimistic little brother with the attention span of a goldfish… it, sometimes, gave her a sliver of hope.

_It's kind of nice out today_, Carley thought while she observed the activity within in the lot. A small, ominous forewarning dwelled in the back of her mind and her gaze narrowed as she glared up at the sky. _Perhaps a bit too nice…_

By this point the group had three basic survival instincts etched into the back of their minds: 1) aim for the head, 2) always have an escape plan, and 3) if it seems too good to be true, there's a ninety-five percent chance that it probably is and you have exactly two minutes to devise an escape plan and get the hell out of there. Unfortunately, the safest place they knew of was within the barrier of the Motor Inn; their only escape plan fell to Kenny's RV if he could ever get the hunk of scrap metal working.

Carley sat forward in the lawn chair and allowed herself to sink into the off-beat rhythm filling the lot – Larry's pounding on the barrier, Clementine's soccer ball striking the make-shift goal composed of two garbage cans and a piece of plywood, Duck's humming of the _Batman _theme, Katjaa drumming her fingers on the hood of the RV, the rustling of the bushes outside the motel – wait…

Lilly had clearly heard the rustling too because a moment later she shot up from her seat and took aim at the underbrush.

Clementine's ball impacted the cans. _BANG._

Lilly's grip on the rifle tensed.

_BANG._

The bushes jerked.

_BANG._

She squinted into the scope.

**_BANG_**_._

Lilly's acute whistle shattered the tension forming over the motel residents. Everyone acted out of instinct – first Larry bent down, setting his rocks to the side. Then Clementine moved away from her ball and crouched at Katjaa's side, who had moved over to sit beside Duck. Finally Carley stepped towards the barrier and aimed her pistol through the gaps in the barbed wire lining the top of the wall.

It was a tactic Mark and Lilly had devised together: hide everyone without a weapon, keep those with a weapon on point. That way any intruder wouldn't know how many bodies were actually within the perimeter. The point of it? Carley still wasn't sure.

She picked up on the sound of several tromping footsteps – one person, two person, three person: Lee, Kenny, Mark… four person, five person? "There's five people," Carley remarked, kicking back her gun, "if it's our group they brought some friends."

Lilly scoffed. "If they did I'm going to shove my boot so far up their asses they'll be tasting leather for a week."

The underbrush jerked again.

"OPEN THE GATE!" Lee exclaimed, his group emerging from the dense forest. "Hurry!"

"You weren't kidding!" Lilly voiced, following through with a curse. She jumped down from her perch. Larry yanked open one side of the gate; Mark entered first with David Parker still bent over his shoulder, blood cascading from his missing leg. Kenny and two teenage boys were shoved inside insistently and Lee followed after, slamming the gate closed. Utter chaos ensued – Kenny and Mark had to figure out if Katjaa could stop the bleeding, Carley and Clementine were shooting them a bunch of questions about their well-being, and finally Lilly stepped in with the scariest expression plastered on her face that Lee had ever seen. "Lee!"

Lee shook the dizziness from his mind. "Y-Yes? What?"

"Who the hell are these people?" She jabbed an accusing finger at the boys. "And what was the logic behind bringing them here?!"

"Here we go again!" Carley groaned, "I know where this is going and I don't want any part of it!" She took off towards Duck who knew better than to get tangled in an argument with the adults, so he stuck to coloring.

Lee exhaled. "Look, his leg was caught in a bear trap so I had to get him out! His screaming was attracting Walkers!"

Lilly huffed and crossed her arms back against her chest. "We aren't responsible for every survivor out there, Lee. We have to focus on _our _group!"

"They're just kids!" Kenny shot back.

"They're _just_ more mouths to feed! We've been running on practically nothing for weeks!" She glared at Mark. "You're only here because of the provisions you had. But now we're almost out and bringing in more people isn't going to do us any good! And I don't suppose you guys just got back from the super market, did you?"

Ben glanced down at his hands, expecting to magically conjure up some grocery bags. "Uh, no…"

Travis slapped his hand over his face. Ben wasn't scared of Lilly, no. Actually, he was downright terrified. Too many different things were bombing him from every direction: yelling, panic, general insanity – it was like they had stepped from one life of chaos into another. Ben felt a tugging on his fingers and he glanced down to see Clementine. "Come see what I drew," she coerced.

Ben glanced between her and Travis. "But I just-!"

"Go Ben," Travis muttered, "it'll be OK."

Ben allowed the girl to tow him off. Anywhere was better than here.

"They're **_kids_**, Lilly!" Mark snapped, earning himself a glare that made him thankful looks couldn't kill, "We weren't going to leave them to die! Dammit, Lilly, you like to think you're in charge but you're _not_! We don't need your damn permission to do _anything_! So tone it down on the bitch fits and get the hell over it!"

Her bionic fist connected with his cheek, flooring him with ease. Lee grabbed Lilly under her arms. "Calm the fuck down Lilly!"

Larry tore Lee off of her and raised his fist to throw his own – probably just as powerful – punch. "Don't you touch my fucking daughter you son of a bitch!"

Travis reacted quickly. Instinct kicked in – he had had two twin cousins who always fought over everything, and at the ripened age of eight they had a set of vocals on them to put an opera singer to shame. So, in conclusion, he would treat this situation like he would with his cousins. That was a sound, plausible theory, right?

He whistled sharply, sending an abrupt wave of silence throughout the lot. "Everyone needs to chill out! Look at you, you're turning on each other! It's not a damn democracy it's a freaking madhouse!"

Lilly's glare narrowed on him. "You'd better watch yourself, kid. I have half a brain to throw you out!"

"It sounds like you don't _have_ a brain! None of you do!" Travis cursed his lack of self-control, but they seemed intent on hearing him out. "Ben, Mr. Parker and I have been grazing death like a bullet. We first lost everything, and just last week we were left with nothing but each other. Go ahead, send us away! It honestly wouldn't make a damn difference!" Travis' voice faltered. "It wouldn't make a damn difference…"

Finally settled, the group split up. First Mark took off after exchanging an enraged glower with their self-proclaimed leader, then Larry who vehemently shoved Lee away from him, and Kenny who decided to continue working on the RV. Lilly watched them go before she turned her attention to Travis. "You really think I care about your sob story? Get out of my face!" She glared at Lee. "As for you, come with me."

Travis lumbered off and sat beside Ben, ducking his face into his palms. Lee studied them for a moment. He felt bad for them, he really did, but perhaps Lilly was… right, maybe. They were low on food, but leaving those teens out there to fend for themselves was practically heartless. Lilly had her reasons, yes, and she had good intentions… she just _really_ needed to unwind sometimes.

"They're just kids, Lil'," Lee said quietly, only loud enough for her to hear but effectively ignore.

"I need you to do me a favor since everyone's obviously pissed at me today." She kneeled down to the backpack propped up against the RV's tire. She rifled through the contents and produced two cases of crackers and cheese, half a strip of jerky, and half an apple. "Here's today's rations. Oh, what's this? There's not enough for everyone! Better get to it." She shoved the items into his hands and stomped up the ladder to reclaim her sniper point.

Lee flinched at her bitter use of sarcasm. "Jeez, what'd I do?"

He glanced down at the items in his hand before casting his stare around at the group. Kat was working on stopping the bleeding on David's leg. Kenny's face was hidden in the RV's hood. Clementine and Duck were content with drawing pictures and showing Ben and Travis to keep them from getting too awkward, although Ben seemed too upset to care and Travis hadn't looked up from the ground once since he sat down. Carley was slouched in her chair with the pistol on her lap – safety on, especially when around the kids. Larry was taking his anger out on the nails by hammering them into the boards with a rock. Mark seemed unfazed by the punch he had just taken and assisted the older man in reinforcing the wall.

_Eleven. _He had to feed eleven people with only four food items. His gaze wandered up to Lilly who met him with an equally calculated look of her own. _Yeah Lilly, I know. You win._

Travis watched Lee out of the corner of his eye. The man moved about awkwardly, holding only brief conversations with his group members before wandering off to chat with someone else. A small hissy fit erupted between himself, Larry, and Mark, but after several seconds he handed over his fire axe to the oldest man (perhaps to avoid a conflict for giving it to Mark or something like that. Travis was sure anything would set them off, like startling pigeons with a gunshot) along with a strip of beef jerky and half an apple.

Finally Lee kneeled down between Duck and Clementine. "Here kids," he handed them both cheese and crackers, "you need to eat."

"Thanks Lee!" Clementine exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his waist.

Travis heard his intestines rumble. Ignoring the ache in his torso that hadn't let up in almost two days, he sidled up to his friend's side and jammed his hands into his pockets. Ben sighed under his breath. "I'm hungry, Trav."

"I know Ben. Me too."

Lee pretended not to hear them. He had just run out of food by passing the items out to Larry and Mark – both of whom had gone just as long as he had without eating – and the two kids, and he was in no mood to let the newcomers belittle him guilt. Stomach aching, he trekked back over to Lilly. "There," he remarked humorlessly, "done."

She set the rifle down and descended the ladder to meet him. "Not so fun to be in my shoes, is it?"

He shrugged passively. "Can't exactly say I envy you. It's a tough decision, but I think I made the right choices." There was a pause. "About those teens…"

"They can stay," she told him briskly, leaning against the hood of the RV. "It'll make it difficult for us since we've already been limping along on scraps, but they can't hinder us either. We have more hands to help protect the motor inn. And if they can shoot a gun, we can have them do some watches."

Lee gave her a relieved half-smile. "Glad we've reached an agreement."

"More like a compromise."

Carley blocked out their conversation and finally deciding to speak. She had been eyeing the newcomers for a full ten minutes with the second most un-amused expression she could have ever mustered plastered on her face. "My name's Carley Andrews. What's yours?"

"I'm Ben Paul," Ben answered first, gripping his knees. "And this is my friend Travis Miller." Travis tossed up his hood and gave a small grunt of a response. "Don't mind him, he's usually a little friendlier."

Carley crossed one leg over the other and adjusted the gun on her lap. "Was it only the three of you, counting that guy over there?" She gestured her head in Katjaa's general direction. The older woman was still working on stopping the bleeding from David's leg.

"That's Mr. Parker," Ben replied, not even bothering to glimpse over, "he's our band teacher."

"Band? What kinds of instruments do you play?"

"I play drums," Ben admitted sheepishly, "I was used for keeping the beat, mostly… I've never been very musically talented." He scratched the back of his neck. "I tried trumpet once, but at this point I hardly remember how to read the notes."

"Saxophone and piano," Travis grumbled, "my parents made sure I put my smarts to good use."

Carley chuckled. "I used to play flute. Stopped when I turned fourteen and haven't bothered to pick one up since." She knew that her vain attempts at holding a conversation weren't making them any more comfortable – she needed to keep them from growing awkward, otherwise the whole group would be anxious and Lilly would be forced to kick them out. Kids or not, they wouldn't survive by themselves, and she wasn't too keen on rejecting them like Lilly was. "I sucked anyway."

"My mom taught me piano!" Clementine exclaimed, drawing musical notes onto her paper with a snapped purple crayon. "I could play _Mary Had a Little Lamb_ and_ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star_…I wasn't very good either."

Travis allowed his frown to upturn to a grin. "I bet you were fantastic. I used to slam on the keys so I could avoid practice. My music would be so terrible my parents begged me to spare them the pain." He tapped his shin in rhythm to the song he first learned as a child."It grew on me after a while."

Lee was off on the brink of ear shot still engaged in a conversation with Lilly (mostly about potential trips into town to scavenge for food), but he kept his attention on the statements behind him. Out of the corner of his eye Kenny was assisting Mark with steadying the board Larry was trying to hammer into the wall. Then Katjaa interrupted them. "Lee, Lilly, Kenny!" The trio glanced at her in synch. "Come here please."

They gathered around her in a half-circle. "He didn't make it?" Kenny inquired.

"No," Kat replied solemnly, "he lost too much blood."

Lilly pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Well, I guess that solves it then."

Katjaa frowned in contemplation. She knew there was only a sliver of chance that she would be able to save him, given that she had spent her life as a veterinarian _not _as a doctor or nurse. The darkest part of her sub-conscious told her that everyone knew that about her, too, but relied on her anyway because her expertise was the best they had. "What should we do with him?"

"Throw him in the woods," Lee supplied, crossing his arms over his chest. "Or bury him properly so his rottin' corpse doesn't suffocate us. I don't know about you, but I'm not too keen on the smell of decayin' flesh."

"Dammit," Kenny said over a sigh, "we knew he wasn't gonna make it."

A frigid hand reached around Katjaa's face, reeling her back towards the gaping mouth of the zombified David Parker. Lee reacted first without even registering the situation; he tore the Walker away from Katjaa and pinned it beneath him. Lilly screamed out something to the group and to Lee about the brain, so he reacted quickly and smashed the creature's skull into the sides of the trunk. Blood splattered across the chipped paint like a broken water pipe.

"Raise its head!" Larry ordered, appearing in Lee's line of sight. Lee's boot connected with the Walker's chest – on a side note, could Mr. Parker really be considered a Walker without legs? – and slammed it up against the back of the base. Larry swung for its forehead but the zombie dropped first, and the blade impacted the rear window, shattering glass inwards across the back seat. "It's stuck!"

Lee crawled away from the undead ghoul clambering towards him. He found the edge and nailed the asphalt. The corpse landed on him like a limp sack of meat, nearly knocking the wind out of him.

Lee allowed instinct to kick in – he gripped the Walker by either side of its face so its snapping jaws hovered just over his nose. He glanced around for help. "Anytime you guys want to chip in, that'd be great!"

Carley aimed her pistol for the back of its head. "Hold still, I'll shoot it!"

"Don't risk it!" Mark interjected, "it's too close to Lee! If the bullet goes through you could hit him!"

"Then what the hell do you expect me to do?!"

Lilly, thinking quickly, tackled the zombie to the pavement, rolling off in the same circular, fluid motion. Carley pulled the trigger and bullet drilled into David's cranium; the Walker twitched, twice, and didn't move again.

All eyes turned accusingly to Ben and Travis.

"Why didn't you tell us he was fucking _bitten_!?" Kenny scolded, stepping towards them.

Travis moved in front of Ben defensively. "Whoa, what the hell are you talking about? He wasn't bitten!"

"Your _not-bitten_ teacher here came back from the _dead_ and almost killed my wife!"

"So? Doesn't mean he was bitten!"

Ben tilted his head quizzically. "Trav, I don't think they know…"

Lilly rose to her knees, a scowl settling across her features. "Excuse me? What don't we know?"

Ben inhaled sharply. "I-It's not just the bite that turns you… If you die – suicide, house fire, the works – you _will_ come back, it doesn't make a difference. You need to destroy the brain." They seemed a little lost – or perhaps, just in sheer disbelief. Ben cleared his throat and continued. "The outbreak happened as we were coming down the mountains from a band competition. We had to board up inside a school gymnasium. A girl – Jenny Pitcher I think – one day she decided she couldn't take it anymore, I guess. She popped some pills… er, _a lot_ of pills. Everything went downhill from there."

Lee gaped at them. "You mean to tell me we're all infected?"

Travis shrugged passively. "Seems that way. For all we know it could be a virus lingering inside of us and can't take over until we die. Like Salmonella or something." He glanced over his shoulder at Ben. "That's how Salmonella works, right?" Ben merely shrugged.

"Perfect," Kenny hissed, "that's just **_perfect_**!"

After several moments Carley's gun clicked. "Don't move! Let me see your hands!"

"What is this, a stick up?" The voice that replied didn't seem bothered by her actions, but rather jolly, like he found it hilarious.

They peered through the gap over the wall and noticed two men poised by the SUV; they gripped gasoline tanks in either hand. The closest man raised one to them. "We were just wondering if you folks could spare some gasoline? We need it for our generator!"

Lilly's eyebrow arced. "Why should _we_ give _you_ gasoline?"

"Not freely! We have a farm. If you folks want, we can make a trade: gasoline for food!" He shook the plastic container a few times. "You can come back with us to our farm! You're allowed to say no if you want! We'll just be on our way, no hard feelin's!"

Lee glanced at Lilly for a decision, but she was already staring right back. "You can make the call, Lee."

He pondered the offer – it didn't sound half bad, considering they were low on provisions and had plenty of gasoline to spare. His gaze met Clementine's. She stood behind Carley with her fingers clutching her thigh. "Alright," he answered after a beat, "we'll try it. Some gasoline for some food."

"Alright!" The man exclaimed. "A couple gallons should do just fine! And the farm's not too far from here!"

Lilly faced the group. "Ben, Carley, Mark, why don't you guys go to the farm with Lee and scout it out? The rest of us will wait here. Come get us when it's safe." She noticed Mark staring at her intently, but her focus quickly averted somewhere else.

Ben gave Travis a thumbs-up and sauntered towards Carley and Mark, clearly eager to be of use. Travis knew Ben would be fine; they had been attached at the hip since before the downfall of the world, but now they were never moving anywhere alone and sleeping practically side by side. They only had each other, and Travis had every intention to keep it that way, for as long as possible, no matter what the cost.

_It's OK, _Ben mouthed to him, disappearing around the corner of the barrier entrance.

Travis exhaled an exasperated sigh. Every time he told himself or Ben it would be OK, things just seemed to get bad. Usually worse. This time he hoped everything would, truly, seriously, be OK.

Clementine noticed his distress and tugged his sleeve. "Are you worried about your friend?"

"Always am," he answered honestly.

"I'm always worried about Lee," she said matter-of-factly, "but I know he'll come back to me every time."

Travis stared down at her quizzically. "And how would you know that little lady?"

"Because he promises me that he'll never do anything that could put me in danger." She nodded, as if agreeing with her own statement. "He always keeps his promises! That's how I know that everything's going to be OK."

Travis wished, then and there, that he could say the same about Ben.

* * *

**Next chapter: **It seemed like a failsafe plan just in case anything went awry, or if Andy and Danny weren't really who they were claiming to be... Lee hoped it wasn't the latter.

* * *

**Another Fantabulous Author's Note :3**

_Thanks for reading! And thanks for the all the reviews so far! You guys are awesome! ^_^ Leave a review if you enjoyed/want to comment/have a question/etc. OK, so I meant to post this a while ago, but I was unable to. sorry guys..._


	7. Cosmic Love

**Chapter 7: Cosmic Love**

_And in the dark, I can hear your heartbeat  
I tried to find the sound  
But then it stopped and I was in the darkness  
So darkness I became_

* * *

**Three and a half months ago**

Carley pressed her back against the grimy wall of the back alley she had somehow woven into, allowing her adrenaline to ease out of her system. Her fingertips scratched against the ridges behind her, her ears traced the screams resonating from somewhere in the distance, her heart slammed into the cage of her chest. She trembled in her own skin as tears slid down her cheek in rivulets, dripping from her chin, soaking into her thin shirt.

_This isn't happening this isn't happening this isn't happening—_

She had come for a simple story. She was trapped by the truth. Her news van had been shredded by the undead – walking corpses eager for flesh, something so surreal it had only ever existing in movies. But she had been in the center of the fray; the heart of the outbreak tearing the city apart at the seams. All she was supposed to do was cover the story – she was only supposed report the _damn_ _story._

_This isn't happening this isn't happening this isn't happening—_

And then _he _arrived, a lonely repairman who had been strolling along only half an hour before the dead swarmed the streets of the city. He had saved her – _not anyone else, just me. They didn't make it – _from her fate, cheating death in a fray of blood, bravery, and an aluminum bat from the spots store cross the street. He had just been passing through… and now she owed him her life.

_This isn't happening this isn't happening this isn't happening—_

Sobs slipped from her cracked lips as familiar hands gripped her shoulders. "Hey, _ssh_, _ssh_. Calm down, Car. _Sssh_."

Carley fell into his chest, roping her arms around his chest. "What's happening Doug? Why is everyone dying?"

"Ssh, it's OK… It'll be OK…" Doug soothed her chocolate hair, noting the airy texture and the elegant dip of her neck. "It's OK… We'll get through this together. We _have_ to get through this. Everything will be OK."

"How do you know?" She whimpered, clutching his shirt. "How do you know we'll be OK?"

"Because I won't let them get you."

_This isn't happening this isn't happening this isn't happening—_

Doug peeked around the corner of the alley, keeping track of the scattered undead around the street. There was a store glaring him in the face – _Everett Pharmacy. _As far as he was concerned there was a safe haven, and he would get them across without so much as a single scratch. He had saved her now, and if he wasn't careful they wouldn't be together long… he had to keep them both safe for as long as he could, and no one would stop him.

Because, when it all really came down to it, it was all about surviving.

_This isn't happening this isn't happening this isn't happening—_

* * *

Mark was up ahead of the group, his rifle slung over his shoulder and his footfalls crippling the leaves beneath him. Overhead the azure sky was painted with cotton clouds, casting an almost surreal feel across the autumn landscape. He hadn't enjoyed the sky since the last time he flew a jet – exactly four hours before the first Walkers stumbled into the air strip. The realization that he was still alive was enough to get him to break into song and half-dance.

Carley's eyebrow twitched as Mark successfully performed a moonwalk that could have turned Michael Jackson green with envy. "What's gotten into him?"

"Think Lilly's craziness is rubbing off on him?" Ben whispered, afraid that if he spoke too loud Mark would shoot him in the knee cap – yes, knee cap, because crazy people didn't like to go for the kill right off the bat. Ben had never trusted anyone who looked like they were fresh out of, or badly needed to be in, a nuthouse.

The thinner of the men from the farm chuckled. "Well, at least his voice isn't half bad."

"I give him credit," Carley remarked, touching her throat, "my voice is awful."

Lee glanced at her in disbelief. "How awful could it possibly be?"

"Let's just say… if air could break, it would _shatter_."

"I'm gonna trust you on this and _not_ ask for an example." He averted his attention onto the strangers. "So, we haven't been properly introduced. I'm Lee."

One man scoffed. "Jeez, where are my manners? I'm Andy! And that's my brother Danny!" Danny gave them a half-salute. "We live on our farm with our Mamma. How many of you were back there, anyway?"

Lee contemplated his answer. He could have been honest, admitted to eleven, or he could avoid the question. Lilly would have denied answering that question entirely; Kenny would have told the truth. "Ben here is one of our newest recruits," he said after several seconds of contemplating the best answer. The teen beamed at them at the mention of his name. "Found him in the woods with his friend."

The corner of Andy's lips twisted into a smile. "You must be in charge then."

"Well, not quite, why would you assume that?"

"You did make the call to make the exchange. Isn't that what leader's do?"

Lee opened his mouth to reply – but then it hit him with all the gracefulness of a careening elephant. Lilly had wanted him to make the call for a reason: to keep low, quiet, and to keep Andy and Danny from becoming aware of just how many people were in the motor inn. It seemed like a failsafe plan just in case anything went awry, or if Andy and Danny weren't really who they were claiming to be… Lee really hoped it wasn't the latter.

"It's kind of a democracy," Lee replied carefully, "sometimes I step up to the plate, but usually someone else does. Not everyone sees eye-to-eye a majority of the time, but we get along when can't find anything to argue about."

By the satisfied expression on Andy's face Lee knew he had chosen his words wisely. "Seems like you guys have it under control! We only have one other farmhand left; lost most of 'em after the dead started eating everybody. A good portion of our cattle were killed, too."

"I'm sorry," Carley said sympathetically.

"No apologizes needed miss," Danny remarked, kicking up some stray brittle leaves, "we still have more than enough to survive until this all blows over."

"_If_ it will," Lee retorted, forcing the image of his zombified brother to return to the darker corners of his mind. "And even if it does, nothing will be the same. Who knows how far this contagion has spread?"

"Hopefully not that far," Ben muttered, clutching the handle of the plastic gas container nervously.

Mark, still ahead of them, froze like a deer in the headlights. "Everyone get down!" He ducked behind a small patch of land that was too small to be classified a hill; the others joined him without so much as a complaint. Mark pressed his forefinger to his lips – _ssh – _and gestured over the mound. Gradually six heads rose to curiously peer over, and Carley silently aimed her pistol for the two men arguing nearby.

The two guys were clad in rags like bandits, confirming Kenny and Lilly's suspicions about spotting people in the woods that were too quick to be Walkers. Mark squinted into his scope, taking aim at the closest male –

"FUCK YOU!" Gun shots pierced that closest male's torso and a moment later he impacted the bed of leaves beneath him. His apparent cohort put another rifle bullet between his eyes and grunted, expelling a glob of spit at the limp body. "Asshole." He whirled around and stomped off, grumbling a line of obscenities only Carley could make out. For almost a minute the group sat in dumbfounded, awe-struck silence.

And then there was panic.

"What the hell was that?!"

"Kenny was right about the bandits!"

"Were those really bandits?"

"They looked like it."

"You can't reach a conclusion based off an assumption, Mark!"

"Guys I wanna go back now…"

"Shut up Ben!"

Lee whistled, cutting everyone off. "Ease up! It doesn't matter if they were bandits or not, we need to get to the farm! Those gun shots most likely earned the attention of nearby Walkers. I don't know about you, but I'm not in the mood to become lunch, thank you very much."

"Lee's right," Danny voiced, "let's get you folks back to our place. At least it's safe there."

Lee sighed quietly. _You had better be right… If this farm isn't safe for Clementine, I don't know what will be._

* * *

Clementine had always wanted an older sibling. For the longest time she heard her friend talk about his annoying little brother or sassy older sister, respectively, and every now and then she would make inquiries to her parents about adding another member to their family – preferably a sister. On several occasions her mother would tell her, gently, _"OK sweetheart, we'll think about it." _After about two years her father finally told her, not so gently, _"No honey, your mother and I can't give you a sibling. We wish we could, but we can't." _And that was the end of that.

"What are you drawing?"

Clementine etched a stick figure into her paper with a dull yellow crayon. Across from her Travis was sprawled out on his stomach, playing with a pebble he had found lying around somewhere. The rock rolled smoothly between his cracked finger tips, smearing ash across the surface of his skin. His chin was rested in the crook of his elbow. Clementine noted the almost hallow look in his eyes, though, an obvious contradiction to his upbeat tone. "My parents… and my sister."

Travis titled his head quizzically. "You have a sister?"

"No…" She shrugged passively. "I _wish_ I had a sister. I've always wanted one!"

Travis allowed the twitch his lips to upturn into a smile. "I had a sister: Laura. She was twelve years older than me, and she already had a family of her own." There was a noticeable twinge of pain in his expression. "Her nine-year-old son is named Chris. He's real quiet, kind of like you, but he likes to think he's cool. Every time I had to babysit him he liked to stay up as late as possible, you know, like the _cool_ _kids_." His smile faded. "After high school Laura moved to Atlanta…"

"Is she OK?" Clementine asked curiously, returning to her drawing.

Travis's dual-chromatic stare connected with something over Clementine's shoulder. When she went to look, however, nothing was there. "Don't know," he said finally, but an usual abrasiveness in his tone told Clementine that he was lying.

They collapsed into an awkward silence that lingered for several moments.

"So I guess we're only children now, huh?" Clementine concluded, heart sinking in her chest. Travis glanced at the girl almost sympathetically. Her amber gaze disconnected from her drawing and she exchanged the yellow crayon for a black one. She streaked a dark line right across the page. "Why do you keep looking over my shoulder like that?"

_"_Like what?"

"You keep looking at something!" She stared around. "No one's there!"

"I have every right to peek around as I so choose to, little lady."

"And why do you keep calling me little lady?"

Travis barked a laugh and flicked the pebble in her direction. "My mother was an English teacher. I picked up on her speaking habits, it seems." He quirked an eyebrow when her face contorted in irritation. "What, don't like being called little?"

"If I'm little lady than you have to be big brother." Clementine noticed Travis' hesitation and rebounded with a triumphant smirk. "You can be my big brother and I can be your little sister! If we can't _have_ siblings, then we'll just have to be our own siblings! And we'll take care of each other as any family should."

Travis' cracked lips parted to make a comment, but Kenny's abrupt whistle cut him off. His gaze darted over towards the barrier where the older man was gesturing for him to come over. With a small sigh Travis forced himself to stand – stumbling only a little as dizziness set in, something brought on by the lack of an intake of food – and traversed the lot. "What's up?" He chirped and allowed his lips to quirk into a failed attempt at a comfortable smile.

Kenny noticed Travis' hetero-colored orbs shift to something over his shoulder before returning abruptly to meet his quizzical stare. Brushing the acute weirdness of the teen from his mind, Kenny flipped out a screwdriver. "We need to make sure you're capable of servin' your worth if you're gonna be stayin'. There's a Walker outside"—he inched the barrier door open and Travis peered through the crack—"take this screwdriver and stick it in its eye."

Travis noted the features of the corpse shambling across the road: dishwater blonde hair matted with grime, leaves and stained blood. Her dark blue sweater was as shredded as her jeans from the constant pull on branches and fumbling in the underbrush. There was an arrow sticking out of her chest.

_Sarah. _Panic set in and he reeled back from the division. "No! No I can't!"

"Look Kid, this ain't up for discussion! Stick this in her brain or risk getting kicked out with that friend of yours!" The screwdriver was shoved forcefully into his grip. Travis felt rough hands grip his shoulders and Kenny shoved him outside. He felt particularly exposed for no real reason, although the fact that he wasn't alone eased his adrenaline rush. "Just one jab to the eye socket, that's all."

Travis swallowed the rock in his throat and clutched the screwdriver against his chest in trembling fingers. Sarah faced them when she picked up on the sound of Travis' sneakers sliding across rubble on the sidewalk. Her milky gaze scanned him over blindly, seeing only an offering of food rather than her friend. As Travis drew closer, Kenny's grip slipped from his shoulders and the scent of rancid meat hit Travis' nostrils. He bit back bile as the dizziness returned. _It's OK it's OK it's OK…_

Sarah staggered towards him, her arms outstretched, her lips peeling back to reveal blackened teeth. Gradually she came within striking distance of the opposing teen who was fumbling with his pathetic weapon.

"Kill it!" Kenny snapped, clearly irritated that Travis was taking longer than he wanted.

"I will!" Travis shot back and found his grip on the tool. He stepped forward, forcing his knees to stiffen and his hands to stop shaking. Still his body quaked under the surge of fear from being so close – _get a grip Travis! Be like Dad! You're strong. You're fearless. Oh shit you're about to die!_ Sarah lunged for him but he promptly stepped out of the way. _You are strong. You are fearless. You are brave. You can do this. You can do this. You can do this!_

This time, when Sarah lunged again, he wedged the tip of the screwdriver into her left eyes, slicing through her nerves into her brain. Sarah jerked before dropping like a sandbag, impacting the pavement with enough force to crack her skull. Travis allowed himself to catch his breath, easing out of his adrenaline rush. The dizziness slapped him again – he hurled up his stomach contents, sluicing acids across the concrete walkway.

Kenny approached with a slight smirk plastered on his face. "You must have the weakest damn stomach I've ever seen!"

"Ya think?" The teen hissed bitterly, dabbing the drool from his lips with his sleeve.

The underbrush rustled from across the street. Instinctively Kenny flipped out his gun, training the nose on the jittery bush; Travis pried the screwdriver from Sarah's skull and raised it defensively in front of him (his attempt at being a badass, apparently).

"Ah! Don't shoot!"

"He's not going to shoot you, Ben." Carley emerged from the tree line first, her fingers grasping a decorative basket, and Ben followed shortly after with his hands still up in submissive defeat. "Put the gun down Ken. We're not going to eat your face off or anything."

Kenny slipped his pistol back into his belt. "Can't be too careful." He pointed to the basket. "What's that?"

Carley exchanged an exasperated look with Ben. "We… uh…" She scratched the back of her head. "It _was _full of bread… but we kind of ate it all."

_"You ate it all?_" Kenny flinched as Lilly passed by him, her hands jammed in her pockets.

Carley and Ben glanced down at asphalt in synch with equally guilty stares. Carley gripped the basket behind her back, almost as if trying to hide the evidence. "We had planned to share, but we were just so hungry one roll turned to three to half the basket…"

"And then it was empty," Ben finished, bashfully prodding loose pebbles in the pavement with his toe. "Sorry…"

Carley and Kenny, aware of Lilly's tendency to flip out over nothing, visibly tensed to better brace themselves for the coming storm. Instead, much to their relief, she just pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Fantastic. Can't trust you guys with anything…"

_"Especially batteries," _Doug remarked in the back of Carley's mind. She ignored him.

Kenny's brow furrowed. "Unimportant matters aside till later; how's the farm lookin'?"

At the mention of the first protected haven in months Carley and Ben brightened. Carley was the first to respond, practically ecstatic that there was a safe place for them for the first time in months. "It's great! They have an electric fence that keeps out Walkers, hundreds of acres for food, and some cattle for meat and milk! They said that we can stay as long as we like, and in trade we have to help them out."

"We'll have to judge whether it really is safe or not," Lilly stated tonelessly, pointing to herself than Kenny. "It has to be protected enough for the kids. But if it seems nice enough right now, we'll round up the group and head up right away." One hand rose to her hip. "And since you two have already had your fill, you and Ben can guard the Inn while we're gone!"

Carley groaned. "I'd like to argue, but that sounds fair…"

_"She's got the drop on you."_

_Shut the hell up, Doug._

"Glad we have an understanding." With that, she turned on her heel and sauntered back inside of the barrier walls. Kenny wagged his head but followed shortly after. Carley didn't move for a moment – she just stuck her tongue out and tromped after.

Ben stepped cautiously around the Walker splayed out on the pavement. His sapphire gaze connected with the bloody screwdriver in his best friend's grip; something clicked in his brain a split second later. "_Oh_… Are you alright Trav?"

Travis' glare was locked on the upper story of the motel. "Yeah. I'll be fine."

Ben glanced up to the room that Travis was looking at. "Laura?"

"I should get going," Travis said briskly, averting the subject. "I'll bring you back something from the farm tonight, OK?" Ben motioned to make a reply but Travis was already gone, disappearing through the barrier entrance.

Ben was abandoned to a dejected silence and Sarah Milton's rotting corpse.

* * *

**Next chapter: **"_NO, LEE DON'T! LEE! STOP! YOU'RE KILLING HIM! LEE! **LEE**!"_

* * *

**Important Author's Note**

_Following the release of episode 5, my entire storyline as been altered... as such, it took me longer to get this posted than intendended. Also, there's a higher chance that this story will now be pairingless. Thank you being patient! And thanks for reading and for the all the reviews so far! You guys are awesome! ^_^ Leave a review if you enjoyed/want to comment/have a question/etc._


	8. One Reason

**Chapter 8: One Reason**

_Trust nothing but pain to get me through the days  
Sleep with one eye open not to be their prey  
A puppet of their sick perversion's appetite  
__Will I be trapped inside this hell until I die?_

* * *

_There is a blinding white light filtering in through the window panes above the bed, which is a mass of tangled limbs, dark blue sheets and a diamond-woven comforter. His rough hands, calloused with years of healing from spontaneous cuts received at work, slide up the curves of her shoulders and along the dips in her neck. He leans his lips down to tenderly kiss her caramel skin._

_Her slender fingers, in turn, grip his arms, familiarizing her with every miniscule tendon, every muscle that contracts beneath his movements. She giggles, her angelic voice reverberating off the white abyss surrounding them. The surreal bliss engulfs them in warmth from the Atlanta summer breeze slipping in through the crack in the window. His heart swells in his chest, his pulse races, his gut knots like a professional contortionist._

_Her glossy lips move to his ear. "I love you."_

_His eyelids flicker shut to indulge in her scent – almost like roses after the spring rain. She also lingers of crisp sweat and yesterday's perfume with a hint of office musk. Her nails are manicured and rake along the grooves of his back, travelling down his arced spine between his shoulder blades._

_"Lee…!"_

_She sits up with a start and the man mounted on her recoils back against the wall, his gaze wide with shock. Lee stands at the doorway, metallic gold knob in one grasp, his worn, leather bag in the other. He drops it with a melodramatic slowness and, as it impacts the sun-warmed hardwood, the clip snaps and graded test papers cascade across the floor. Red ink clashes against blue and black markings, a similar blue to the man's eyes, a similar red to the color blinding Lee a moment later, and a similar black coating the surface of the aluminum bat his fingers are curling around._

_"Lee, I – NO, LEE DON'T! LEE! STOP! YOU'RE KILLING HIM! LEE! **LEE**!"_

"Lee!"

Mark's abrupt shout snapped Lee out of his daydream so suddenly the man nearly jumped out of his own skin. "Ss-Sorry! What was that?"

"Walker."

The rancid smell of death came in the form of scorched flesh and black mold that hit Lee like a sucker punch, but he stomached his bile as he always did and moved towards the Walker bent over the barbed wiring at a perfectly acute angle. "Ugh, that's disgusting…"

So far the farm had been a success – Lee had repaired the broken swing, Carley and Ben had received food to give to the others (assuming they didn't eat it all on the way over. Carley wasn't the sharpest knife in the kitchen, nor was Ben the brightest crayon in the box, and together anything could go to hell in a hand-basket _real_ fast… or in this case all the food would disappear into those black holes they called stomachs and the resulting argument between her and Lilly would have enough destructive force to level a city ), the generator was brimming with life from its new intake of gasoline, and Danny and Andy's mother Brenda had welcomed Lee's group with open arms.

All that was left now was to scout the surrounding area's fence and pluck off the Walkers leaning on the wires, like the one Mark was poking with his foot to make sure it didn't move. The farm was a large area to cover, especially with all the surrounding acres still in need of patrol, but at this point they were willing to go an extra mile to earn themselves a meal or two.

Lee prodded the creature in the chest with the handle of his ax and it slipped the fencing, dropping to the ground with a sickening crunch. A family of fried maggots spilled across the grass as its skull impacted a rock. "Don't think I'm hungry anymore…"

Mark adjusted his glasses so they sat more comfortably on the bridge of his nose. "That's a shame. More for me then." He received a playful poke in the ribs from Lee's elbow.

A moment later a gloved hand, matted with dirt and grime, fell on Lee's shoulder. He whirled around, ax raised defensively – "Who the hell are you?"

The farmhand was mounted on a mare – a breed neither of the men recognized – and his cowboy hat had a rim that blocked out the sun. He tipped it at them, revealing a skull sporting dark hair and an unshaven face. "Howdy. Name's Jim."

"Jim?" Mark echoed, almost as if in disbelief.

The man nodded firmly, adjusting his position on the horse's back. "And this is my girl Trigger. I'm the last farmhand here. Came up from Texas two months 'fore the whole world went to hell; I was lookin' for a job."

"Name's Lee," Lee introduced as politely as possible to make up for almost greeting Jim with a face-full of ax only moments prior, "and that's Mark."

"Lee and Mark? Nice to meet ya." Jim's leather-gloved hands adjusted their grip on the reigns. "I see the misses invited you for dinner."

Lee cast a quick glance at Mark. "Brenda normally has company over?"

"Yes sir." The mare shifted beneath Jim's weight and he pat her neck to ease her worries. "Usually they're just some survivors lookin' for a good meal, but they never stay more than a few days. They're almost always gone by the time I get back from the morning's task of checking the cattle. I reckon you folks are in the same situation?"

"We haven't had a decent meal in days," Mark answered before Lee could, "can't find any animals with enough meat on them to eat, and the only deer we can finally track down are already dinner for the Walkers."

"That's what you call the Lame Brains?" Jim shrugged and smirked broadly in amusement. "I like that term better than what Andy and Danny have been callin' 'em." He gestured to the corpse on the other side of the fence. "They put you to work cuttin' down the dead from the fence, I see. I just finished the southern border. Other hands are always welcome, though, and very much appreciated."

"Glad to be of service!" Mark declared, saluting. Lee just rolled his eyes.

They trailed along the fence again, settling for small talk about origins and the history of the farm itself, not quite the owners of it though (every time Lee tried to passively sneak a question about Brenda or her sons into the conversation Jim would avoid answering, a suspicion that clearly passed over Mark's head but left Lee with a tightened grasp on his ax). Gradually they cleared the sector and came across a fallen segment of fence.

Jim gestured to it with a tip of his hat. "Easy fix. Hop across to the other side and push it back up. It'll settle right back into the ground."

Mark leapt over the three rows of barbed wire and took a second to check for Walkers. "We're clear." Lee joined him and they kneeled under the posts, grappling the splintered wood with even rougher hands. "On the count of three… One, two, three!" The pegs lifted upwards with ease and sunk back into the disturbed dirt. Mark plucked several slivers from his finger, hissing at the acute stabs of pain. "Reminds me of my first job at a wood chipper factory."

"My first job was roundin' cattle," Jim remarked, steadying Trigger as she suddenly reared her head up. "Worked on my uncle farm's for a while. It was kinda like this—"

Something whistled by Lee's ear. He wasn't even remotely sure what it was because his eyes could only make out the faintest blur of white, but it certainly left a knick in his cheek and a hole in Jim's shoulder. The farmhand howled in white hot pain and collapsed from his horse, irking her into screaming and speeding off out of sight. "JIM!" Lee exclaimed, noting the crossbow arrow wedged in his arm socket, "shit!"

Mark grabbed Lee by his jacket just as another arrow whizzed by, towing him to the dirt behind the tractor parked only two post lengths away from them. "Bandits!" Mark exclaimed, flinching as several bolts ricocheted off the tractor's hood. "They're probably the same ones we saw in the woods!"

Jim groaned something incoherent, earning Lee's attention. "Are you alright?!" Lee shouted to him, jumping when another arrow struck the post blocking Jim from the bandits' range. Jim pointed to the bloody bolt in his shoulder, clearly un-amused. "I didn't mean – dammit, never mind! We're coming to you!"

"We can't leave this spot!" Mark snapped, peering over the tractor's seat. He quickly ducked down again. "I count at least seven of them. They'll shoot us down before we can make a run for him!"

"We have to try!"

"And then what? That stretch of land is wide open! We'll get mowed down one way or another, Lee!"

"Then what do _you_ suggest?" Lee hissed, glancing back over at Jim.

Mark followed his friend's gaze. Jim was struggling to his knees, his free hand tugging at the pistol in his belt and his wound oozing dark crimson blood. Mark's brow furrowed in irritation. "If I get shot because of you, you're Walker bait, got it?"

"Fair enough."

With a shared glare of mutual understanding they charged for the fence, grappling the posts and vaulting over the barbed wire. Arrows whizzed by and drilled into the dirt at their feet, the archers unable to effectively track the haphazard movements induced by their gaits. Lee grabbed Jim's gun and Mark bent the man over his shoulders – allowing adrenaline to assist in most of the heavy lifting – before dashing for Brenda's house.

Lee fired an array of bullets into the tree line as he sprinted after, tossing the weapon aside when the bolts ceased to reach them and the clip clicked empty.

And then everything was quiet again.

* * *

_The rain pounds the hood of the car and cascades down the window panes, soothing her nerves as she waits patiently for the storm to pass up so they can keep driving. Her hand slides along the ridge of her swollen stomach as her husband hisses querulously about the weather's refusal to let up. Gradually the rhythm of the droplets ease his flaring emotions and he sits back in his seat, allowing himself to take in the pallid scent of the saffron truck: cigarette smoke, grilled pork (or some kind of barbeque), and vanilla._

_"What if he hates me?"_

_The question catches him off guard and he turns to look at her, his eyes weary beyond their age. "He won't."_

_"Are you sure?"_

_"Yes." _

_She asked him the same question repetitively over the course of the last nine months (or, rather, eight and three days) and he always gave her the same exact answer. He was aware that she pestered him because she was scared, that this pregnancy was so unexpected and they weren't ready to be parents, but he was afraid too. The fear was dominated by his love for this woman – his first everything, and now his only everything. They were going to be scared together, and he was OK with that, because they were **together**._

_"I want him like me," she utters, fidgeting slightly as a tiny foot presses against her palm._

_"It'll be fine, Kat," he reassures her, covering her hand with his. "We'll be a happy family. He'll love you, you'll love him, and everything will be alright in the end. I promise I'll take care of both of you, no matter what."_

_Their wedding rings rub together like a silent promise._

Kenny sub-consciously touched the golden band on his finger and cast a glare at the group several paces ahead of him. His gaze connected with Lilly's back. _No matter what, Katjaa, no matter what._

* * *

Lilly was furious despite the passive-aggressive expression settled in her features. The only one in the group who had ever been able to tell that she was edgy was Lee. She assumed he didn't miss a beat – the tightening of her fingers around her rifle's trigger, the way her back arced when insulted or threatened, the miniscule upturn of her furrowed brow, the petulant toss of her head – and that, despite the annoyance it caused her, was a great asset to their company. He could pick out the smallest details in everything and anything.

Unfortunately, he also made very poor decisions.

It was this minor fault that was causing her to feel so unnerved. It was originally his idea to bring those two teenage boys and their dying teacher back to home base (in his defense, however, he was only trying to do the right thing in a world where that was specific trait was hard to come by), and even though she finally gave in to her group's demands to allow the teens into their little circle, she had been the only one to truly regret it.

Ben was like a male version of good ol' ditz-tastic Carley; he was basically yet another road block and just another mouth to feed. And Travis wouldn't _stop staring_ _over_ _everyone's_ _fucking shoulder_. It was like he was sending out secret signals to the forest or some superstitious bullshit like that (not that she would be surprised… his polychromatic eyes alone were enough to give her chills like an Arctic breeze).

"Hey, I think that's it!"

Lilly was snapped out of her thoughts when Travis called out to them from up ahead, pointing through a break in the tree-line to a cleared area boxed in by barbed-wire fencing. Duck was right behind him, staring at the haven like it was Disney World. "Dad!" the boy exclaimed, "Mom! Look! LOOK!"

"We see it Ducky," Katjaa replied modestly, her tone as temperamental as a saint's. Sometimes Lilly wondered how a woman with a son like Duck could afford the ADHD pills required to keep him under control.

Lilly squinted to get a better view of the end of the road. "That's it. It's how Carley described it."

"Was that before or after she stuffed her mouth with all the food?"

"Can it, Kenny."

Lilly knew the trucker was silently steaming about Carley and Ben's selfish act from before, but she couldn't dwell on the subject for any longer than it was worth. Carley and Ben had received their end of a proper punishment, now Kenny needed to put a sock in it before Lilly used her fist.

"Lilly?"

She paused and glanced over at Travis as he approached her. "What's up?"

"Have you ever had a really bad feeling about something?"

Lilly wasn't sure where he was going with this – in fact, she didn't _want _to know. But she was unfortunately willing to hear him out, as she was with the rest of her crew. "Always do, especially with an army of corpses wandering around eating people."

Travis flustered at her reply. "That's not quite what I meant but…"

"Well then what do you mean?"

"Uh, never mind."

The self-proclaimed leader rolled her eyes skyward and trotted by him, bumping him out of the way with her shoulder. "If you don't want to come then go back to the motel and stop wasting my time with your obnoxious whining."

Travis seemed a little hurt by her brash response, but he mentally brushed it off and tailed behind her like a kicked puppy. Ignoring them, the group started down the cleared path towards the farm and, in turn, the fragrance of hope flittered about like dragonflies. The visible acres of plants and light formed an almost surreal, pristine dome of safety over the quaint farmhouse itself.

For a moment Travis forgot about the _thing_ that had been following them, warning him about the dangers of their destination and the ominous growls of the starving undead in the forest.

Something snagged him by his hand – he glanced down at Clementine who had slipped her grasp into his. She cast a brief smile up at him before returning her attention to the farm in the distance. "Do you think it's safe there?"

"I hope so."

"What if it isn't?"

He peered up when the _thing _whispered his name. The entity hovered several yards away from him, her form composed of nothing more than an eerie translucent blue energy. Her body from the waist down was barely visible, her eyes were glazed over with a milky haze, and –

"Your big brother will protect you, Clem, don't worry."

– there was a bullet hole in her forehead.

_"Traaaviiisss stooooop." _Her voice was broken like a skipping CD, and her words fragmented before repeating themselves backwards. It was almost like something out of the Twilight Zone, only it was real, it was _very_ real.

_Leave me alone Laura._

The entity neared him, gliding on thin air like a sheet of smooth ice. _"Traaaviiisss stooooop. TRAAAAVIIIIIISSS. STOOOOOOOP." _She noted that he was ignoring her, not even bothering to make eye contact like he always did. "_TRAAAVIIIISSSS. PLEASE STOOOOOP. DEATH. ICCCEEE. DAAANGEEERR. IT'S SOOOO COOOOLD."_

He just kept walking. And after unleashing a despondent scream of pure desperation that hit a decibel shrill enough to make Travis flinch, she followed.

_"Traaaviiisss. Iiiicccce. Cooold. It's so cooold Traviiiisss."_

He really wished she would say something else… or just stop talking all together. His grip on Clementine only tightened.

* * *

**Next chapter: **Lilly scowled. "I don't trust them as far as I can throw them, Lee. Please, find out what's behind that door."

* * *

**Important Author's Note**

_THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE! And thanks for reading and for the all the reviews so far! You guys are awesome! ^_^ Leave a review! Updates will be coming faster now that it's a new year!_


	9. NOTE

_******I'm leaving.**_

I love fanfiction and all, but I really don't have any more time to keep up with all my updates... I think I'm going to publish one last story as my last hoorah, but I don't know where it's going to go from there. I might return, I might not.

A lot has been happening lately, and it's all too much to handle when I also have to update fanfics... I want to focus on real world things that will affect me directly in my life. I'm sorry. I'm so very, very sorry.

Thank you to my readers, for being there no matter what.

Thank you to my reviewers, who gave the motivation to keep trying to the very end.

Thank you to all the friends I have made on here, for being so awesome and wonderful to me. I will still check my messages if you want to talk.

Thank you Fanfiction, for being the biggest influence of my life and transforming me into a great writer.

_**As a parting gift: **If you want to now how any of my unfinished fanfics end, just ask me._

**I'm sorry,**

_~Euregatto_


	10. I Go Hard

**A/N**: So of course my mom found out I quit fanfiction. Her immediate response? "You are so cruel to your readers! You should at least finish one of your stories!" As a result, I used up my free time to write some more of this story. Why? Because zombies. Also, I know one or two of you asked for Car/Doug and mentioned it a few times... Yes, there will be more Car/dreamDoug. The main pairing is now a minor Lee/Lilly, but that won't happen till ep3. Please forgive me for the crappiness, I wasn't trying to make it gut-splitting funny, more like "haha, nice..."...so yeah. That concludes my rant.

**_ENJOY AND REVIEW!_**

* * *

**Chapter 9: I Go Hard**

_And I think they know you, till one day they show you  
So no matter what they say I go hard  
And I think it's over, but it's never over  
So don't ever let them see you on the ground_

* * *

_Carley wasn't aware Doug was kissing her until his hands were unbuttoning her shirt (rather slowly, she noticed, and her first instinct was to beg him to just tear the whole thing off right there and then). Her back pressed against the notched surface of the kitchen table, which was now cleared of its items, and found that her hands were mindlessly traveling up his bare chest. He was certainly muscular; there wasn't a single cell of fat on him._

_Carley noted that it made even more attractive than normal._

_Doug broke away and trailed kisses down her shoulder to the valley of her chest, unhooking the clasp of her bra beneath her. She found her breath again, but that was when her lack of self-control took hold. "I miss you, Doug."_

_The statement echoed into the room even though it had been a mere whisper. She wished she could inhale those words back into her lungs, but there was no point – he was already laughing darkly, **humorlessly**, into the sensitive nape of her neck, sending vibrations into her tingling nerves. "You can't miss me when I'm right here."_

_"I mean the real Doug."_

_"Oh, of course. If you didn't, I wouldn't be here, would I?" When she made a move to reply he bit into the pulse-point of her neck and she cried out, digging her nails into his back with such force that he bled. He grabbed her wrists and pinned them over her head. "…Ow. You're rough. But if you like rough, I can show you _rough_."_

_"No I just-!"_

_Doug bucked his hips against hers and she yelped in both shock and pleasure, a muted cry that neither of them heard within her dream world. "You just what?"_

_She shivered as a cool breeze filtered through the open window. Her lungs suddenly gasped for breath when he touched his lips to her stomach, nipping playfully at her sensitive skin. "I…I just… I just…" The words escaped her as he wandered lower. "I just…don't want you to stop…"_

_He smirked when his fingers grasped the zipper of her jeans. "That's what I thought."_

* * *

"When do you think they'll be back?"

Carley was sprawled out on the roof of the RV, one leg kicked over the other and her arms folded snugly under her head to serve as a pillow. The midday sunlight streamed down on the lot, basking the pavement in an autumn glow. Her eyes snapped open with a start and it took her almost a minute to disassociate Ben's question with some of the things Doug had said to her in her dream. "Uh… Probably later tonight, why?"

The teen was perched only a few inches from her head, fiddling with the rifle on his lap. They hadn't seen a single Walker since the group departed for the farm and left them stranded with nothing but ammunition and two water bottles that had been crinkled and refilled so many times Ben was sure they would collapse on themselves (they had plenty to drink from the river only a mile off, but as far as food went they weren't so lucky).

Gradually he answered. "It's just quiet here, is all, and I haven't been this far from Travis for so long before. I'm worried about him."

The woman stretched, allowing her stiff legs to hang off the edge of the RV. "You and Travis are close?"

"Best friends. We've been attached at the hip since grade school."

She glanced up at him. "I'm glad you guys survived for this long together. It's hard being on your own, especially when it's easier to handle the apocalypse in pairs." Withdrawing her legs, she folded them again, one over the other at the knee, and exhaled to relax her tense muscles.

Ben gripped the rifle. "I'm not worried about him physically, I'm worried about his emotions."

"He's got some bipolar issues like Lilly or something?" Lilly, of course, wasn't bipolar, but if Carley had to describe her in one word it would be exactly that.

"No, he's just…" Ben fumbled for the right words, as he always does and always did, and finally replied. "Travis hasn't seen his sister since the whole world went to shit three months ago. One day, while we were holed up in the gym at school, he had some sort of breakdown; started wailing and panicking and Mr. Parker had to pin him down until he stopped." _'Nononono oh God no why why why nonono this can't be happening this can't be happening!' 'Trav?! Trav what's wrong?!' _"He was silent for another week after that."

"What happened?"

"Call me crazy, but… Laura appeared to him. She's dead, Carley, and she keeps following Travis around. I can't see her, but according to him she believes he's in danger of something. Something cold and dark. Or that he shouldn't go towards anything cold and dark… something along those lines." He flushed out of sheer embarrassment. "You don't think I'm crazy, do you?"

"That's probably the most sane story I've heard all year. And I'm a reporter."

Ben sighed with relief. "Whew, wow, it's so nice to get that off my chest. Speaking of secrets and stuff, are you alright? You looked like you were having a nightmare."

Carley rolled over to face away from him so he didn't see her blush. "Something like that."

That was the end of their conversation. Carley felt her eyelids droop from exhaustion – a combination of Figment Doug and little food – and for the first time in what felt like weeks she was too afraid to fall asleep. Her dreams with Doug were getting out of control. And she couldn't do anything to stop them…

That scared her more than the thought of the St. John's turning out to be cannibals.

_But that wouldn't happen…_

_"It's possible."_

_Shut up Doug._

* * *

_I knew this was a bad idea._

Travis had always hated to admit that he was wrong, especially when he truly, genuinely believed he was right. Laura, prior to moving out of the house to live with her boyfriend and future husband, used to always thrive on kicking him into the dirt when they argued; she was the one who had always been right, and even now, as Travis neared the entrance to the farm, he cursed himself for ignoring Laura who was, non-too-surprisingly, right again.

Lee and Mark were trying to keep another man right on his feet – there was a crossbow arrow wedged into his shoulder, but how that caused a loss of balance left Travis thoroughly perplexed – while they snapped at Danny and Andy.

"You said this place was safe!" Lee barked, clearly furious with the brothers.

"What the hell's going on, Lee?"

Lee flinched at the outburst and faced Lilly who, at the moment, seemed much more infuriated than he did. And an angry Lilly was much more dangerous than facing a hoard of Walkers without a weapon in hand. "Mark and I went out to scout the farm and fix the fences when we were attacked by bandits."

"Bandits?" Kenny echoed, "They're here, too?"

Andy raised his hands defensively. "Hey, hey, now hold up. Those bandits promised that they wouldn't attack anyone on this farm so long as we gave them weekly supplies of food. We didn't think they'd just up and attack like that out of the blue!"

Brenda descended the walkway to greet the group. "OK boys, I set up the room. Oh, who might these people be; the rest of your group, Lee?"

"Yes ma'am," he answered politely, gesturing to them with a slight nod.

"You know," Danny remarked briskly, "I think I know where one of those bandit camps might be. We should go talk to them and sort this whole issue out."

Mark crossed his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes skyward. "Genius idea, Danny. Let's all just hold hands and skip merrily into bandit territory expecting them **_not to gun us down on sight!_**"

Jim glanced between them. "Look, guys, I am in a _lot _of pain here…"

Brenda pat his good shoulder. "Of course honey. Come on, let's get you fixed up!"

She led him carefully up the house, and when they finally disappeared through the screen door Lee turned his accusing gaze to Danny and Andy (both of whom took an unnoticed half-step back). He exhaled an exasperated sigh. "I'm gonna agree with Danny on this one. We should check out the bandits' base."

Mark pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright, that's a stupid idea so I'm not gonna get involved!"

"No one said you had to."

"Good, because I wouldn't either way."

Andy cleared his throat, distracting them momentarily. "Before this escalates any further than it needs to, Danny's gonna get the rifles from his room. Lee, settle your group in and you two can head out when you're ready."

Lee made a motion to thank them but something – in this case, multiple somethings – grappled him at his elbows and quite literally _towed_ him through the fence and up the steps to the gazebo sitting vacantly in the side yard. In his line of view he caught Andy escorting Katjaa and Mark to the barn, and Duck, Kenny, and Clementine – who was dragging Travis in her wake – heading over to the swing hanging from the peach tree.

His world spun upwards and fields turned to sky turned to Larry's face as the elder man chucked Lee into the bench with such force he almost broke through the questionably stable wood; the impact, however, knocked the wind out of him. Lilly sank her bionic fingers into his shoulder, anchoring him to his seat.

"What the hell was that for?!" He choked out.

Lilly's expression dove into an immediate scowl that mirrored her father's constant features. "You said this place was safe!"

"I didn't say anything!" He snapped back. A cry escaped his lips when her hold on him tightened. "For fuck's sake! I didn't say it was safe!"

"That's not what Carley said," Larry informed him with a grunt. "She told us you gave the green light to head over!"

"I JUST TOLD HER TO GET YOU SO YOU GUYS COULD SCOPE IT OUT!" He heard a small crack in his shoulder's socket only a moment before cringing into the pain that shot into his brain. "Shit! LET THE FUCK GO OF ME BEFORE YOU BREAK SOMETHING!" Lilly reluctantly released him and he moved his hand up to his bruising shoulder, rubbing at the swelling muscle beneath his jacket. "Dammit Lilly… You're bat-shit crazy!"

"You know it." She sat herself beside him and Larry filled the emptiness on his other side so he couldn't move away – the sense of claustrophobia and a little fear for his life instantly set in. I mean, seriously, what the hell did he do so wrong that he deserved this kind of treatment? "I need your help."

"You _really_ expect me to help you after what you just did?"

She continued with no real regard for his rhetorical question. "On the way over Kenny said something about investing into the family. I don't need him fucking up our chance to get a meal, but I also don't want to let my guard down in case these people turn out to be sociopaths. If I monitor him we may end up strangling each other. That's why I need you to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid. As usual."

Lee pressed his lips into a thin line. "Fine. Just don't kidnap me like that ever again."

"I thought it was pretty funny." They both glanced at Larry who just shrugged. "What?"

"Dad's gonna distract Brenda when she comes back down," Lilly remarked, rising from the bench so Lee could breathe again. "He's gonna try and keep her from noticing our activities around the farm."

Larry puffed out his chest. "I have charm comin' outta my ass!"

Lee quirked his eyebrow. "I've noticed. Anyway, what are you gonna do about the other brothers?"

"Andy's in the barn with Kat and Mark…" Lilly turned to Danny poised at the entrance gate. "And you're going to be gone with him. So don't come running back unless it's an emergency because I need all the time I can get to look around."

Lee inclined his head as a submissive nod. "Alright. I'll be back."

"Hopefully not."

Once again, two pairs of eyes fell on Larry.

* * *

Travis had long forgotten about the wailing apparition hovering wordlessly behind him and focused on pushing the peach tree swing. Clementine sang and hummed and attempted to whistle multiple songs she learned throughout her short six-year life span, but not a single one of them was _My Darling Clementine_, which came as a surprise given her rather unique name.

After a minute or two of swinging Laura appeared across the fields near the barn. She was pointing to it rather insistently.

"Hey Clem?" Travis uttered and she paused her humming.

"Yes?"

"Oh my darlin', oh my darlin', oh my darlin' Clementine…~"

Clementine hesitated as the lyrics slipped passed his lips. His voice wasn't that of an angel's but it certainly wasn't hard on the ears. She found herself singing along, giggling when he would change the words from _you were lost and then I found you _to _you're a girl on a tree swing _or _I was lost and still remain so. _Kenny was seated on the flattened boulder next to the tree, watching Duck rock back and forth peevishly, wondering when his turn would come around.

"You're good with kids."

Travis glanced at the fisherman, somewhat startled by his comment. "Oh, uh, I guess… I had to put up with my younger cousins a lot, so it's more like I have a developed patience." He cast his dual-chromed eyes to Lee and Danny as they marched out through the front gate, weapons in hand. "Wonder where they're going…"

"To seek out the bandits," Kenny answered matter-of-factly.

Clementine launched off the swing so suddenly the wood nailed Travis in the gut and he buckled over, gagging for air. Clementine raced over to Lee, calling out to him like a broken record. "Lee! Lee! Wait!"

Lee stared down at her. "What is it?"

"Are you going after those bad guys who hurt Mark?"

Lee gave the girl a reassuring smile. "Yes. I promise I'll only be an hour at the most."

Clementine beamed back up at him. "OK! But no more than that. You don't wanna be late for dinner!"

"Of course not Clem." He gently pat her shoulder and motioned to Danny to shut the gate.

When they disappeared into the forest Clementine returned to Travis who was using a post to stay upright. "Hi Trav!" She paused when she noticed he was sucking in breath like he was breathing through a straw. "Oh, what happened? Did you hurt yourself?"

He winced. "No…I'm…fine." His focus turned up to Laura, still pointing persistently at the barn. Giving in to her request, he told Clem to let Kenny and Duck (now occupying the swing) be and asked if she wanted to see the cow with him (she promptly complied with his request, of course) before limping towards the other side of the farm.

_I'm **really** not going to like what I find…_

* * *

**Approximately forty-five minutes later…**

Lilly had been sulking in the gazebo when Lee finally showed up again.

Despite her father's on-going conversation with Brenda St. John, which bought her nearly three-quarters of an hour worth of time, she had come up empty handed aside from her previous quarrel with Kenny over the locked doors in the barn (which Travis had been motionlessly staring at for _half-a-fucking-hour_). Andy had told them all that there were some tools back there Mama didn't want the kids to touch and locked it up.

Kenny was still suspicious.

Travis was still **_staring_**.

Throughout the section of time she wished that Lee would just come back. He had been gone for what felt like ages, and for every second she counted without him the more increasingly worried she became. So as soon as he entered the gazebo she couldn't help exclaiming, "You're back!" and throwing her arms around his waist. "I was worried something happened!"

"Something did happen."

In a sudden stroke of realization she half-pushed half-pulled away, brushing invisible Lee cooties from her jacket. "Uh, yes, right. Tell me what happened."

He locked his chocolate gaze with the floor. "We found what looked like a small camp. Didn't belong to the bandits…but this woman, she came out of the bushes with a crossbow. I guess she was startin' to tell me something about the dairy and…"

Lilly arched her eyebrow quizzically. "And?"

"Danny shot her."

Her stomach sank. "There's something not right about this place. Andy's hiding some secret behind the barn doors that Kenny's determined to discover, and Travis is being a damn weirdo and staring at them like they're something special."

In the background clouds rumbled as the storm approached, filling the sunset skies with a bereaved shade of gray.

Lilly scowled. "I don't trust them as far as I can throw them, Lee. Please, find out what's behind those doors."


End file.
